


The Grand Reopening of Dark Loans

by DonttellmybrotherIwrotethis



Category: Lunar Knights, ボクらの太陽 | Bokura no Taiyou | Boktai
Genre: Adventure, Aliens, Awkward reunions, Gen, Humor, Hunted Vampires, Repaying Debt, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:07:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 22,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27063895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DonttellmybrotherIwrotethis/pseuds/DonttellmybrotherIwrotethis
Summary: A Solar Boy comes back from the dead, a Dark Swordsman gets his sword stolen, a Duke tries diplomacy, another Solar Boy gets to see old-fashioned pile driving, and some Immortals get their plans wrecked because of loan sharks. Sanity not included.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8





	1. Django's Return

_"In the event of a borrower being unable to pay, incapacitated, and uncontactable at the due date, interest will continue to accrue at the same interest rate, up to a maximum value of ten loan periods. After the maximum debt limit is reached, the borrower's possessions, right to exist, and any life will belong to Dark Loans. Dark Loans will not excuse your debt in case of death if you are rendered undead; All debts need to be paid as if still living. If a borrower is truly dead, their interest will fall to any co-signers."_

_-Clause in the Dark Loans agreement.  
_

* * *

The grave had not been forgotten. The lonely tomb was visited by a floating sunflower every year, even after the Vanargand's rampage buried it farther underground. He'd once been trapped within the seal underground with the occupant of said tomb until he'd died and regenerated above-ground. The Messenger of the Sun would never truly be gone while the sun shone. He'd become the companion and ally of those who still struggled against the Dark Tribe and even acquired a new nickname. At the beginning of summer, he'd come back with Trinity to pay respects to the Legendary Hero.

He visited the location of the grave until, one fateful day, the Messenger did not return at the beginning of summer. Night reigned for years.

With the fall of one regime and vampire leader, many magic seals left by Ratatotosk were redone by the Duke Dumas, if they were deemed important. The seal on the Beast of Destruction was a stable one and checked carefully. Ratatosk had stashed his attack dog back on the moon where he'd found it. Lunar Children had managed to seal it in an eclipse and his magic was subpar compared to theirs. He had to seal it in the darkness of the New Moon. The core of Vanargand he kept closely guarded until his defeat. In the interest of tying up loose ends without the aid of a piledriver, many political opponents were shoved in tightly sealed coffins. These coffins were loaded into spaceships and launched on a one-way, closely-watched voyage to the sun.

Dumas did not get to every seal left by Ratatosk. There was one entirely forgotten location, deemed insignificant and pointless.

A dark seal inside the tomb faded with the death of Ratatosk. A vampire awakened some years later and found himself alone, underground.

* * *

The vampire sensed a presence and looked up at the dark haired girl that appeared out of nowhere. This was surprising, especially when the underground ruins were filled with lava and monsters.

"Are you ready for this?" the girl asked with a smile. "At Dark loans, we lend energy and you borrowed some. You were twenty-eight soll short in your account after the retrieval service."

"What? Retrieval service?" He was looking inside a chest he'd found in the ruins of San Miguel. The tunnels and cave ins had been hard to navigate, even with the mouse transformation. He'd been drawn here by the light of the lava and a smell. He clutched the fabric of a blue dress he'd found inside the ruins.

"You fell down a hole. It was 200 soll to get out of the hole. You only had 172 in the bank after you paid an account balance to a Ms. Zazie. It would have been a very short time on the treadmill to pay off the interest on 28 soll. I'm sure that you have your reasons... But you have to return what you borrow, That's the way of the world. You understand so far, yes?""

The vampire was very much trying to remember the reasons as the girl hummed to herself thoughtfully. He did not like the concealed glee in the look she was giving him. "The problem is how to get you to make the repayment. We'll have to get you to do a job for us. At an interest rate of 600% with ten periods of compound interest, you owe us $7,909,306,972 in soll."

She took her victim while he was still too stunned to protest.

* * *

Doomy sometimes visited the vampire on the treadmill. She told him about the state of the world when he asked. Every day he asked if the sun had returned. He asked if anyone had seen a floating sunflower. He asked if she knew anything about the ParaSOL and how it worked.

Sometimes Doomy would tell him more information as a reward for putting extra effort into the treadmill. Most of the time, she tried to put a price on the information to add to his outstanding bill. There was a market for artifacts found underground but Django declined to sell some things for his own reasons. He seemed hopeful they might be linked to his past. The blue dress Doomy knew was worth a lot. The Gun De Sol she'd offered to take for a smaller price but he refused that offer, much to her confusion. It wasn't like he could use the broken gun and if ever it was repaired, it would burn to shoot it. The headband he would not part with. He also had a weird set of elemental symbols that, when she tried to take them for appraisal, would vanish and return in Django's pocket.

Doomy was happy to return to her desk and look at the numbers again. At the rate Django was working, she'd be able to reopen the Dark Loans in no time. She flipped through the papers on her desk and then, out of the corner of her eye, saw the mirror flash lavender. She didn't like that mirror. Selling insurance to adventurers had been a short lived business venture. She'd closed all the accounts except for one that she could not work around.

Doomy walked to the mirror and flashed a smile. "How may Dark Loans be of service to you?"

The voice from the mirror was just as polite, if less cheerful. "May I ask about claiming on the Azure Sky Tower policy?"

"That was years ago when Vanargand damaged your tower. Dark Loans has since declared bankruptcy, and can no longer be held responsible for repairs."

"If you reopen with the repayment that vampire has, you will owe me."

Doomy did not like the sound of that. She and the mirror traded icily polite policy interpretations for hours before coming to an agreement. Against all expectations, the parties came to an agreement which they both liked the sound of. Doomy got to keep what soll were already paid and did not owe any cash to the Azure Sky Tower. Doomy did wonder why the Silvery White Knight was interested in this vampire and how he'd found out. Maybe it was something to do with the full moon that night. Django was likely an adventurer he'd tested and felt obligated to release from the darkness or something.

It wasn't her problem what happened to Django now. He was traded for the entire payoff of the Azure Sky Tower insurance policy and sent to the care of the Silvery White Knight. The Solar Boy's former self would want to have the knight save him from becoming a danger to the living.

* * *

Irony was where the Guild got their cash to rebuild town after Byron's destruction. The Guild sold equipment to protect people from the sun.

Perhaps this deserves explanation. There was, after the sun returned, a number of people who were used to perpetual night. The bright sun, while cheerful, gave people headaches. Since sunglasses were in low demand during the reign of darkness, no one was making any eyewear to protect eyes from the bright sunlight except for the Solar Gunners. They did not like accidentally blinding themselves. They had production set only to make enough for themselves and didn't produce nearly enough goggles to meet the demand. A sizable black market for stolen gunner goggles emerged.

At least they had ramped up production enough for a sizable income. The new hideouts were, while still hidden, outfitted with a lot more purchased goods than stuff dropped by undead. They were able to pay off all the bar tabs in full. All thanks to sun-protection gear.

This was why there was less fuss about the grand reopening of Dark Loans had less fanfare than one might expect. There was still some fanfare and a terminal in every Solar Bank branch that unobtrusively appealed to the desperate and stupid. Laura pointed it out to people.

Aaron saw the terminal that Toasty was trying very, very hard to block from his view.

"Toasty, what's that over there?"

Toasty knew it was futile to try. "Stay away from that. It's been the downfall of many a Solar Boy."

"What is it?"

Laura flashed a smile at the boy and sunflower. "This is a console you can use to access the Dark Loans service! Anytime you are short on energy or money-"

"It's not worth it," Toasty said, petals twitching.

Laura, seemingly oblivious, said, "You can borrow as much as you like! It will be due in three days and make sure to look at the interest rates. If you need to go on an adventure, it's no good to die before you come back so..."

Toasty buried his face in his leaves as Laura continued the sales pitch. He'd lost count of how many vampire hunters had ignored his warnings. No other Terrenial had to put up with this nonsense. Maybe it was the Solar Boy optimism that made this happen. Every single generation.

This was what Nero saw as he floated into the bank. "Hey, what's taking you guys so long? Aaron?"

"We're going to see Sheridan. We haven't got all day here." Lucian said, frowning. It was Lucian and Nero. The dour gloom was welcomed by Toasty at this point.

Aaron whined, "But this is like the second time this week we've gone there! Can we call ahead and make sure he will actually be home?"

"He's been working on something with Alice. I want to see it. It might help me with my revenge." Sheridan was okay with the interruptions. He claimed Carmilla was happy to see the two hunters come by. Nobody else saw any such emotion from Carmilla happening, so they took his word for it. Aaron had not picked up on the reason for the many visits to the mansion, nor had Lucian admitted to himself what he was hoping for. Sometimes Sheridan was out and Lucian would still ask the android about news and weapons.

Toasty stopped wilting. "Lucian, Aaron was thinking about borrowing from Dark Loans."

"I was just telling him that interest is only 250% today! Borrow any amount over a thousand, and you will get this complementary hat. Only the first 100 borrowers get this collector's item. They're not going to last long." said a smiling Laura.

Lucian had less patience and more muscle than Toasty. Lucian grabbed Aaron's scarf and bodily dragged him from the terminal. This spared Aaron having to see the Punishment Room. He was the first Solar Boy in a long line of the sunflower's pupils to have escaped such a fate. _Thank the sun for Lucian,_ thought Toasty.

"We would do better killing monsters on the way to Sheridan's place."


	2. How On Earth Did Earth Survive Everything Again?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Django and the Silvery White Knight make plans, Lucian goes on patrol, and the Immortals look at the history of Earth.

_"In you flows the blood of the Moon Child. Given your lineage, it would seem I am destined to serve you." -Silvery White Knight_

* * *

Django had no clue what the knight standing before him wanted. Doomy had come to the treadmill to announce that he was going to be done shortly, since his loan was bought out by another party. He was not sure what to make of the announcement. Doomy gave him back his few belongings. There was the broken Gun de Sol, the strange charm bracelet with the elemental emblems, and there was the headband.

Doomy brought him to a crumbling ruin that was only a few stories tall now. It could be called the Azure Sky Tower if one were optimistic. As things were, it was more accurate to call it the Azure Sky Mound. After Doomy had left, silence reigned. Django racked his horribly fractured memory for anything about this knight who seemed familiar.

The knight broke the silence first. "Adventurer. What dost thou recall?"

Django decided to be honest. "Not much. The first thing I remembered on my own was my brother and I don't know his name... Doomy had to tell me my own name. This stuff I woke up with seems important and there was a sunflower, and Father. There was a dress in some ruins that belonged to a girl. I don't remember exactly why but..."

The Silvery White Knight waited with a calm and expectant air.

"She offered me blood... it was important to not bite her? It would have been wrong."

Django fell silent as he tried to process the few fragments of memory he had and gauge what the tall knight was after at the same time. The knight stared back.

The knight decided to go against common sense.

* * *

It seemed like the universe conspired to make Lucian babysit this kid. He'd babysat the toddler Aaron when he was Sartana and had been basically the older brother or uncle or something. After Sartana returning from the grave, Bea had volunteered Lucian to babysit the kid going through a monster-infested sewer. Although pointing this out would shorten your lifespan drastically, Lucian was now the babysitter/brother of Aaron. As far as babysitters for 10-year old gunslingers went Lucian did a better job than he would ever admit, other than the part where he let a kid fight vampires and space aliens.

Today, Lucian was being a responsible adult. He'd dragged Aaron to the living quarters at the nearest Guild hideout this morning. Passerby could be forgiven if they thought the smaller boy was undead with how pale he was. Aaron was also moaning complaints at Lucian. Lucian rolled his visible eye at Aaron. "No, you can't come on this hunt. You are hacking up a storm."

"But I want to fight..." Aaron croaked.

"You get over that flu. You are worse than useless. You might as well sprinkle salt on your neck and wear a bottlecap if Dumas shows up. I'd rather go alone, but Bea is going to try and follow me out there. We'll see if she can keep up."

"I don't want to miss out on this mission. Stupid flu. You guys will tell me all about it, right?" Aaron gave his best pleading look to the Terrenials. Toasty stayed with Aaron while the other Terrenials followed Lucian's lead.

* * *

Django had accepted the knight's offer to work under him instead of for Doomy. The Silvery White Knight's new squire was a quick learner. This Moon Child was not as strong in Luna but his other skills were admirable. It was a shame Sabata had not had the chance to come train at the Azure Sky Tower.

The Silvery White Knight was considering having Django take the Lunar Guardian Oath to bind himself to the tower. There were some reservations he had. First, Django had the habit of looking at the horizon when sunrise came. Second, it was a lonely position for one with human emotions. Unlike the other elemental guardians, the Lunar Guardian was one not born into it. The seals trapping the demons of the tower were woven into the vows. Technically, the knight could leave at any time. The Sllvery White Knight breaking his oaths would cause the seals to shatter. He could only leave during a full moon.

Silvery White Knight was a good title, but Django had taken to calling the knight 'Silver.' Silver had not asked the young vampire to take the full Lunar Guardian oaths yet. His oaths were to protect the weak, not harm the innocent, destroy evil, and always conduct himself with honor. (He wasn't interacting with anyone but Silver, so not much use was made of the oaths.) More memories came back to Django over time.

Eventually, Django wondered if he would be able to leave. He wanted to go and fix things. He wanted to find out what happened to Sabata and Otenko. It was a slow process, piecing together the bits of himself over the days of training. It was a while before Django remembered about the Moonlight Change magic. Django had used it before, but he hadn't been quite as dead. Half-vampire was less change than that of a full-vampire to a human. Mani had successfully used the Moonlight Change as a full-vampire; Django did not have Moon Beautyism. (He did have the sun always in his heart?)

Silver and Django did not miss the destruction of the Vambery at least. Django, in mouse form, was dustbathing while Silver was mixing a new batch of mortar. They heard a low rumble before the tower started to implode with the help of Guild explosives. The show had been spectacular, even from the Azure Sky Mound.

It was not many days after that when the knight called Django to him. The curious squire saw a box held in the knight's gauntlets. It did not fit the atmosphere. The box was cardboard, wrapped carefully in twine and brown paper. The massive metal armor had even tied neat, serviceable, bunny-eared knots on the package. He stood with even more of a serious and important air to his posture than he normally did.

"My Liege."

That was a title that Django had not heard from the Silvery White Knight since death.

Silver said, "I entrust this Solar Seed to thy care. See to it that it is safely delivered, then return to me."

"I... can take this? You're trusting me?" He hadn't relearned the transformation spell yet.

"Yes. Observe the world as you travel. Much has changed even in the time since your arrival." Django had been the most recent source of news when he'd come here and it was all secondhand from Doomy. "Return before the full moon." Scrying on full moons was marginally helpful. Star readings were nice and informative compared to scrying except when people connected to Silver were involved, but Silver took what information he could get. He wished he had a star reader on call.

The vampire boy was determined to make Silver proud by acting as package delivery boy. He adjusted his chainmail, buckled his lunar shield, and made sure the Luna Lens was properly set in place.

* * *

The Immortals were not known for kindness. They used the Planet Eater Byron on habitable planets on a regular basis. It might have struck everyone as strange that the Immortals didn't come back with a large fleet of spaceships or another Planet Eater. There were a number of reasons why they did not.

The Immortals were arrogant and the materials to make the Planet Eater were rare, even with the vast empire the Immortals had conquered. The Immortals thought they would manage just fine with one Byron. They were perfect. They didn't count on Polidori's incompetent imperfection and destroying their only Byron.

The Immortals preferred not to engage in open combat when they could. In their minds, each of their people was far more valuable than every other living being in the universe. It was also more fun to try mind game manipulation first. Since they were so awesome, it should only take a single Immortal to conquer a planet.

This little backwater planet on the frontier of known space? It had not one, but two Eternals locked up. Even the Immortals did not want to see Jormungandr coming their way. It was a mystery to them how the humans on this planet had imprisoned an Eternal, much less two of them. They wanted to carefully research things and not unseal it. This little planet was ridiculously stubborn about surviving.

Indiscriminate bombing of the surface might undo whatever security measures were in place. Polidori's notes on Jormungandr were lacking. Polidori had no interest in it and had been more concerned with vampire politics. (Polidori found vampire politics hilarious.)

Vanargand, they knew a little more about from Polidori's notes The Beast of Destruction, Vanargand, could be _controlled._ The key to it was, if their information was right, a sword. The sword forged by Ratatosk had the soul needed for Vanargand's awakening. They just needed the sword, a new moon, and the blood of a Lunar. It wasn't a stretch to conclude Lucian was descended from the Lunar Children given that people called him the 'Lunar Knight.' They could use this Beast of Destruction as a replacement weapon to rival the Planet Eater in keeping rebellious systems in line.

The Immortals didn't check to see if they were wrong about that assumption before sending their agent. Tolstoy was the Immortal best-suited for this job and he would crush the Solar Gunners and the Dark Swordsman. He would turn their precious sunlight against them. He prepared his robots with sol-absorption modules and retrieved his prized pets from the Lambda-Centra-578 cluster.

Tolstoy planned his execution and broadcast. They needed to get this done before the other civilizations scattered about the universe got funny ideas about rebellions, revenge, and alliances.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hang on, I think I spotted something else inconsistent with the game lore. Somewhere. Ideas are welcome by the way, if anyone is reading this.


	3. Man Bites Vampire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mistaken identity leads to more inconveniences.

_"Lucian is pretty scary sometimes." - Kay_

* * *

There were a number of events that led to the awkward reintroduction of Django to the world at large. Events conspired to make things even more awkward than they should have been. The Twin Butterfly shop getting a vending machine was one of the events.

Lisbeth was an adorable little girl of nine years running a shop by herself. This led to a number of people coordinating to ensure this little girl would have the most successful small general store in the Old Culiacan area.

The common everyday citizens of the area quietly changed their shopping habits to visit the store. Normally with a store, people would put things back into the wrong places on shelves and track mud in. This store stayed clean far longer than any other. Sloppy Woman came in one rainy day with dirty shoes and got stopped for small talk by Hot-Headed Guildsman who pointed out the muddy footwear. A man shouting at the little girl about not having his favorite brand of soda got told off by Careless Guildswoman. Although exquisite torture could not have made Lucian admit it to Alice, he even lent a hand by scaring off a shoplifter. Several shoplifters. Gleefully. (He justified it to himself by saying it would be inconvenient to have the item shop that supplied their gear go out of business. Nero sighed.)

After the Vambery fell, there was still a lot of work and rebuilding which were happening. People worried about the Immortals' next move against the planet, but society had a tendency to look around and say, "This town is a dump and I am missing part of my roof. I'm miserable here, now." Lisbeth opened her shop at all hours of the day to accommodate night shift guild members. The Info Broker and Bea conferred about what to do. They pressured a number of people for donations to a vending machine.

This particular morning, Retired Man and Info Broker had teamed up to deliver the solution. They, and a few other friends, helped haul a box to the store and see Lisbeth's reaction.

Lisbeth's eyes went wide as the box came in. Aaron handed her the signed card while it was being set up. She was thrilled to keep people supplied in the middle of the night. The limited selection in the small machine was limited to bottles and cans but it was enough.

Two weeks had not even passed before there was a problem.

Irritable Guildsman looked at the vending machine in disbelief. This machine was just stocked yesterday. How in the world was it already out of his favorite tomato juice? Not only that, but the other brand of tomato beverage was completely cleaned out for the second morning in a row. This had been going on for one day too many.

First, Irritable Guildsman waited for opening time. He went inside the store to talk to Lisbeth, who found cans of juice for him in the back room. She was sympathetic, but did not share his outrage about her vending machine being empty of tomato products. Irritable Guildsman complained to other people too, yet no one else was worried about his brand of juice being hijacked. He checked the security footage. (The guild members had installed the cameras early on as part of the 'support Lisbeth' project.) The cameras were not on the vending machine, but with how they were set it should have caught any humans going around the side where the machine was. He changed the position of one camera.

This was how the Guild found out about the existence of the vampire. There had been no attacks, no announcements, and no dungeons being made. There was footage of a person at a vending machine buying tomato juice. While wearing half-plate armor. The crimson wings gave the vampirism away.

* * *

Duke Dumas had been at large since Perrault brought him back at the Vambery and, wisely, had decided to lay low for a while. Rumors kept placing him in different locations and he had hideouts somewhere. Him and Perrault were quietly organizing things and taking stock of the assets they had for war against the Immortals. Perhaps it was risky being this close to a known Gunslinger Guild area, but they were not planning to stay very long. Lucian and Bea were checking out a rumor that placed them in the Old Culiacan streets near the river which meant they were probably better off leaving this area.

* * *

The morning after Django had been filmed, he crept around quiet as a mouse. He was, in fact, a mouse at the moment. Everybody looked for bats and no one had seen a mouse-transforming vampire in ages. It was slow traveling but he would take the lack of conflict.

When he sensed the dark energy, he stopped and sniffed the air. It did smell strange, not like a vampire should smell. It tugged at the corners of his memory. He'd only spent a brief time as a half-vampire and scarcely remembered it but there was something that called to him about this dark aura. Django ducked into a building that looked abandoned and transformed back to look out of a taller window.

He saw a teenager. The teenager had purple hair and it smelled like Sabata. Before Django's brain caught up and asked what he thought he was doing, Django stuck his head out the window and called to his brother.

"Sabata!"

The guy turned around and it was definitely not Sabata. The blond woman with him turned around at the same time Not-Sabata did. She had a gun of some kind.

Django had the same sudden feeling that people get when they step into an empty elevator shaft because they were not paying attention.

* * *

Let us take a moment to look away from the rooftop chase which ensued.

There were ten people about to be horribly inconvenienced by a vampire. The scene inside the pub was a happy and peaceful one.

First person was the Friendly Bartender polishing glassware. He was making a good deal of revenue today. People were in a great mood after the sun came back and the vampires had become a non-issue. The Solar Gunners were cleaning up towns and roads of monsters, so travel was safer than ever. More people were repeat customers and visitors from out of town bolstered revenue. He'd invested in a new set of wineglasses.

Second person was at the other end of the counter. A vulpid was celebrating a new job with a shot of the best whiskey he could buy. He was delicately preparing to savor every last drop. It had been a spur-of-the-moment thing and the whiskey cost more than a week of his usual fare.

Third and fourth were at a table furthest from the window. This table was the most private in the room. A young man and his longtime girlfriend were sitting down together to a meal. He was acting like it was the usual lunch date, but she was picking up on his nervous behavior. He had a ring in his pocket and a cheesy, sweet, romantic speech planned out. It was adorable. It was about to be ruined.

There was a bathroom occupied and the Blue Dog shopkeeper was washing his hands inside. The door, when opened, would swing outwards from the bathroom. This is important to his fate.

Numbers six through nine sat around a table at the window. Three guild members were grabbing a bite to eat after their shift had ended. The goggles and guns clearly showed their affiliation to the Gunslinger Guild. They had ordered the new pie on the menu, with ice cream.

From upstairs there was a distant yell of a boy apologizing. Then a woman shouted "It's the VAMPIRE! Shoot the mouse!," and a mouse rocketed down the stair railing. The mouse pushed off the edge of the railing and leaped to the counter. It scampered behind the bottles and glasses as the gunners were pulling their solar guns out and the bartender spun around. He dove to catch a wineglass which the mouse accidentally had knocked down. The click of weaponry powering on was accompanied by the pubmaster yelling, "If you break stuff without hitting the vampire, you'll be paying for it!" The gunners' hesitation saved the mouse for only a split second.

The vulpid ducked under the counter, leaving the shot glass behind as the mouse leaped forward into the dining room floor. Django lost whiskers to a sol bullet that struck the whiskey and left a spray of liquid and glass.

He realized that being cornered would force him to fight and took a gamble. He leaped forward and into the sea of table, chair, and human legs on the pub floor. A volley of bullets from the three gunners sent salt-shakers flying as well as chairs and tables. The couple at the isolated table drew back. The two clung to each other, engagement ring completely forgotten. Django transformed back momentarily, flung a table aside, and shot a blast from the Luna Lens at the Guildswoman, Bea, from upstairs. "Sorry!"

The table had been unintentional, it had simply been a cover he was hiding under as a mouse, and Django was considerably taller in humanoid form. The table made good cover to transform again and slip under some furniture as the gunners opened fire again. Bea was down the stairs but didn't want to explode missiles in the faces of civilians. Concussive blasts were no joke. Chairs and a table blocked the bathroom door thanks to Django, so the poor canid inside was trapped for the time being. Amidst the smoke, noise, panicked civilians, and panicking gunners, one mouse ran between feet and through the door. The gunners had thought the mouse would stay away from the bright sunlight and didn't see the mouse leaving through the sunniest point of the building.

Django had an exit strategy here and would endure the burning on the way to a rat-hole he'd seen the night before. It was mere feet away from the front of the pub. This made it all the more infuriating when the first thing he saw outside the door was a maliciously grinning Lucian with Ezra on his shoulder. Vanargand was gleaming with frost. "Last chance to tell me where Dumas is."

The noise inside the bar was nothing compared to Django's frustrated internal screaming. "I don't know him! I don't want to hurt anyone!"

"I doubt that." Lucian said as he attacked.

There was a difficult battle. Django fared better than most would because he'd been training in the Azure Sky Mound. Lucian had just done the entire Vambery and was backed up by four Solar Gunners. They were aiming to kill, Django was aiming to avoid casualties. Plus they were outside on a bright and sunny morning. Django almost got to the hole. Lucian snarled and activated his dark trance.

Django, when chomped on, snapped and finally fought back.

* * *

About a block away, a man on the way home from grocery shopping turned the corner. The man saw a vampire and the tranced vampire form engaged in combat. He looked down at his bags of produce and pasta and sighed before taking the loooong detour home. This added another person to the tally of horribly inconvenienced people that sunny afternoon.


	4. Jolly Cooperation?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucian and Nero catch on to things being weird. Django makes friends with people he would rather not be associated with.

_"Of all the behaviors in a vampire, the biggest red flag is when they are being polite to you. When a bloodsucking fiend is sucking up to you, they want something. Every time a vampire was polite at me, it ended in a well-deserved pile driving. Except for that one time. I'll tell you about it later." - Ringo to Django_

* * *

_Something is wrong._

Using the name Lucian had in his old life was one-hundred percent asking for a beating. Why would the vampire boy call out to Sartana? It did not feel like a taunt to trap Lucian though. Had he really said Sartana? The change in Vanargand's aura changed, as it always did when Lucian was hunting. The negative emotions flowed both ways between the Vanargand and the Dark Swordsman; They fueled each other. But something was not in sync.

 _Something isn't right._ Nero kept thinking. He'd been sidelined for most of the chase as battle as darkness would not be as damaging. Other elements did more to weaken this vampire that frantically chugged tomato juice. Nero could not figure out what was bothering him. It wasn't just the vampire's behavior.

Lucian let Bea chase the armored vampire in through a balcony roof and moved to cut off his escape.

"Lucian, wait." _These emotions, this sorrow, this bloodlust... It isn't like normal._

The vampire emerging from indoors distracted everyone. Nero's power was focused on the trance. When the vampire's panic overwhelmed it, Nero barely had a chance to warn Lucian. The vampire boy changed with a cry of fear and rage. The gunners did not dare shoot at the wolf-like Django for fear they would hit Lucian. The dark sword continued to awaken.

Lucian and Nero found out just how out of sync the Vanargand when Lucian's trance ended and he reached for the sword. He felt a delirious grin spread across his face. He laughed a little to himself. Django froze in shock.

**...to fight you...**

It took two hits. The sudden giddy feeling made Lucian's swing inaccurate. Django's fury had drained him dry of willpower. Django collapsed with a small cry. Lucian looked down at the teenager. The vampire looked a little younger than himself.

Lucian's mind was suddenly overwhelmed with regret. There was, for a moment, nothing else he could have felt but that. It was as if Aaron lay before him instead of this monster. Nero, connected as he was to Lucian, felt it too. Alexander had to catch the flying cat before crashed into the pavement like the vampire did.

Dumas and Perrault took that window of opportunity. They swooped in. Lucian was instantly back to his old self. Dumas grunted in pain when he got stabbed. Dumas yelled "Dark Teleport!" and vanished halfway through a volley of solar bullets.

* * *

Django woke outside of a coffin, which was a little surprising. He could barely move, and not because of the seatbelt. He groaned as the attempt to move reminded him about the severe sunburns. He'd lost himself to rage after the swordsman had transformed and started biting Django. He frantically sorted through what happened after that. He hoped no one else got hurt.

"Oh good. You're awake! I thought it would take much longer for you to regain consciousness."

Django focused on the cat. "Are the other people okay?" Where had he heard about a flying cat? It had a little flight suit.

"Did you have friends back there?! If there's other vampires, we didn't get them, I'm sorry. Hold on, we'll see if we can-"

"I meant the people on the street."

"You are worried about them? The solar gunners hurt you a lot more than you hurt them! You took two days to wake up."

There was a second voice. "Welcome onto our ship, the Schrodinger! Let me tell you, that was close! Five more seconds and the humans would have had you en route to purification! Want to help save the world?"

"They have a Pile Driver?" Django idly wondered if the cat would be adverse to being scratched behind the ears. The cat wanted help saving the world? That aligned with Django's interests. He already had that on the to-do list. Django belatedly remembered where he'd heard about a flying cat. Silver had choice words about a stupid terrenial he had a falling out with at the beginning of the perpetual night.

"I have not seen you before. You must be new. Or newly returned from the grave. I'm sorry to say that the rest of our tribe were devoured by an Immortal from the stars. We were so close to a perfect world, a safe planet under the stewardship of vampires. It would have been a better world for the living too..."

Django did not like where this was going.

"Duke Dumas, at your service. What is your name?"

The ruler of the vampires. Django remained silent. He did not feel like talking to the infamous tyrant nor did he see an avenue of escape. It did not help that Django was too weak at the moment to run.

"Do you know who adopted you into our tribe?" Dumas had to hand it to whoever bit this kid; fighting the Dark Swordsman and four Solar Gunners in broad daylight was amazing. No casket armor even. Maybe it was one of the Poes. They liked having other vampires that looked younger. Dumas decided it was unlikely, the Poes did their paperwork.

More silence from Django.

"You were badly injured back there. It is a miracle that you lasted as long as you did without casket armor." Dumas waited for a while as Perrault piloted them to a safer location. When he was satisfied they were safe for the moment, Dumas pulled up a screen. "Is there anywhere you want to go?"

Django did want to get back to the Azure Sky Tower but did he want the Duke Dumas to know where he unlived? Their current location was completely unknown to him and he could hear rain. "Northeast of Istrakan. Foot of the mountain. I'll find my way from there."

"That place has been buried for a long time now. You have been undead for a long time then?"

Django clamped his mouth shut this time. He'd slipped up. Perrault set the coordinates and Dumas continued to politely talk to the vampire boy for a while.

Sensing questions about Django were not getting him anywhere, Dumas and Perrault decided it was time to share their great and glorious plan to save the world. Django was treated to the rare sight of a cat and vampire sharing a slideshow. "All right! So a lot of humans are being stubborn about it, but we all need to work together. They'll come to accept it. Now if you look at this screen here..."

Django realized he was trapped by social convention, powerpoint, and severe injury. Silver would not approve of Django fraternizing with the Duke Dumas, but there was little choice. When Dumas got to the slide about mutual benefit from cooperating with the mortals Django raised an eyebrow. He was looking at someone who might be more of an optimist than himself.

"It might be difficult to get people following your plans. Is there a single person on this planet you have not wronged somehow?"

Dumas was surprised by the sudden sass, "You. Plus, we rescued you."

Django decided not to use the boring powerpoint as an example of a wrong because the cat was so clearly proud of it. Besides, that was a fair point about the rescue. Duke Dumas and Perrault were being one-hundred percent sincere about wanting to save the world. Django would be on board with the plan if it were not for the fact Dumas built an oppressive empire with a total disregard for the lives of others. That boded ill for human/vampire relations.

Django suspected Dumas was to many people what the Count had been to his family. The difference between the Duke and the Count was the motivation behind their atrocities. The Count did stuff to make people suffer and the Duke made people suffer to get stuff done. An idealist committing terrible deeds was still committing terrible deeds.

Come to think of it, a lot of vampires liked fancy titles. Probably came from the arrogance and the memory loss when you gave in to darkness. Maybe he should pretend to let his guard down. (It was not like killing this guy would stick without a Pile Driver...)

"Er, sorry. You can call me Squire?" That sounded stupid when he said it out loud.

* * *

Aaron was shivering less that day. He had hoped one of the other gunslingers had convinced Lucian to bring them along. Soothing Guildswoman had come in with juice, a bowl of soup, and the news about a vampire. Perhaps Duke Dumas had turned someone. The now eleven-year-old felt a little guilty for briefly thinking that if Lucian didn't catch the glorified mosquito today, he'd be along to help with the battle and purification. At the very least he wanted to ride along in Laplace.

Both he and Toasty shuddered as a chill traveled through the air. (Aaron had already been shuddering from fever.) The chatter of Guild members downstairs had stopped, leaving an eerie calm in the building. An unmistakable killing intent radiating from nearby drained the light from the room.

Lucian opened the door. His hair had some scorching from solar shots. Claws had torn the sturdy blue fabric of Lucian's long coat and there were dark splotches staining it. Even the dark armor had scratches on it. Aaron relaxed enough to breathe again and coughed a bit as Lucian said, "Dumas got away, d_ it."

Nero said, "Dumas stole the vampire when we were putting it in a coffin."

Aaron, still a little out of it from illness said, "You saw Dumas?"

Ursula scowled as she floated into the room behind Nero and Lucian. "We almost had him. We were even fighting him outside! We had him down before Dumas showed his ugly mug!" She'd been hoping to have some revenge against vampire-kind and see some things burn. Vampires were a species that needed to be blessed by fire, if ever there was one. "He just showed up when we were calling Laplace, grabbed the mystery vampire, and ran for it. Teleported out"

"You ran into Dumas?"

Lucian snarled to Aaron, "The rookie gunners couldn't hit him while he was hauling his buddy away. It's pathetic when a kid has better aim than three adult gunners. At least Bea can aim." Witch had done at least some damage before Dumas got away. "Something was wrong with Vanargand. That vampire did something to it."

In stark contrast to the rest of the group, Tove seemed impervious to the prevailing bad mood in the room.

Aaron took the lament as a compliment. "Well, I'll just have to finish getting well so we can get them. What's so great about that box Tove?" By Aaron's side, Toasty's leaves had stopped drooping and he looked excited.

Tove had a box in his claws and the cheerful grin of messenger of good news. He was waving it in the air and flew past to show the bottle to Toasty. "The Solar Bank had this package for us! Look, look!"

Toasty said, "Tove found a Solar Tree seed! Why would the Solar Bank have it for us? They don't just give away things like this."

"The clerk said she was keeping her client anonymous..." Tove messed with the ripped paper wrapping. "I'll get this planted right away!" Tove continued to mutter to himself. "I'm gonna need to pick an Earthly Maiden or Earthly Boy. Wonder if Lisbeth's interested? She doesn't know self defense. Maybe Jane? Lisbeth's got the whole guild on protective instincts but Jane can fight..."

Lucian didn't care about the seed sender. "We'll work on it if the Guild can't find any sign of Dumas. I'm going to the mansion to have them take a look at Vanargand." Vanargand was acting normal now but he was curious.

"There was definitely some connection with that vampire and the sword. Maybe they will find something in Sheridan's libraries."

* * *

Django had not spotted an escape route yet and his new traveling companions had caught on to 'Squire's' twitchiness. It went down by about two twitches per minute after he realized they were asking him to help save everyone in the world. Their new friend had relaxed almost imperceptibly after hearing Dumas launched the Lord of Destruction and Co. into the sun. Ratatosk was worth two twitches; the Count of Groundsoaking blood was worth about 2.3 twitch reductions worth of friendship. Reassuring him that there were no dead Guild Gunners when they'd rescued Squire was worth four twitches. He had gone very still when Dumas talked about Vanargand. Once they stopped talking about Vanargand, he went right back to fidgeting. Squire was not entirely on top of current events.

Dumas simply was glad he wasn't the only vampire left. He could start biting people and injecting them with vampire blood, but that seemed like a bad way to get the Solar Gunners on board with his plan to save the world. It would definitely attract Lucian's attention. It would attract Lucian's fury, if it was possible Lucian could hate Dumas any more than he already did.

"Hey. Dumas?" Perrault said quietly to Dumas. "Is it just me, or does he behave more like a human than a vampire?"

"...You might be on to something. There is something off about his aura."

The two friends looked at the armored boy who was trying to pretend like he had not just been creeping towards the tree line when they were distracted. "Wonder why he doesn't trust us?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Django and Solaire would be great friends. Just a couple of undead guys praising the sun and helping people out.


	5. Interrupted Laundry Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Are you allowed to use a person's name as a curse word if you killed them?

Aaron had been strictly forbidden to leave his room until he got more sleep and yet had crept downstairs to listen in anyways. Bea was sharing her report with Earnest and Kay. She let Lucian go deliver Vanargand to Sheridan with a promise to call him once they located the vampires. "So in short: This new vampire is unpredictable. He hasn't killed anyone, he's not mentioned anywhere in Dumas' database, no one recognizes this guy, he drinks tomato juice when fresh victims are in easy reach, no monologues about 'pathetic mortals' being inferior... Who'd Dumas bite?"

Kay polished the Ninja as he listened. "I mean, did Dumas actually bite the guy or just dig him out of some ruins?"

Earnest was thinking that too. "What does he want?"

"He seemed interested in Lucian? Lucian said Vanargand was acting weird around him."

"Remember that radar blueprint we got from the Vambery?" All heads in the room turned to look at Kay. "We finished building it? It was used by Dumas. Apparently he had a certain vampire that he wanted to make sure stayed dead. That one was in the habit of leaving spare bats in hiding so he could regenerate even when purified with the land-based Pile Driver of legend..."

"That required a piece of the vampire to be tracked. We were hoping to track Dumas with it."

"We find this guy, we find Dumas. The shield he dropped won't work. We need a body tissue sample or blood..."

"But where... Call Lucian!" Kay sprinted out the door in the direction of the laundromat as people frantically dialed their phones. The canid hoped he would not be too late to stop the coat cleaning. He had seen Lucian at the dry-cleaner once before.

After the three gunners left to get the tracker up and running, Aaron and Toasty entered the room to sneak a peek at the files

"He drinks tomato juice?" Aaron said, "Who ever heard of vampires drinking tomato juice?"

Toasty shrugged. "I've seen such a thing before. A half-vampire found it better than the alternative while he was looking for a cure."

"Really? You have got to tell me about that. What happened to him?"

"...He was murdered." Toasty looked so depressed that Aaron decided not to press him for the story.

"I'm sorry... Hey. That's the picture of the vampire."

"Oh my goodness! Aaron! I think I know this boy! I hope I'm wrong..."

"You know who it is?!"

"If I'm right, he wasn't saying Sartana. Quick! Let's see if we can catch up to Bea!"

* * *

Perrault and Dumas had brought up a number of reasons why they should stick together with Django. Not the least of which was that it started raining again. They found Django huddled in a spot to hide from the rain.

"Sooo do you have any undead minions under your command?" Django shook his head no. The Silvery White Knight did not count as a vampiric minion. Django could only imagine the knight would say if anyone even hinted at such a thing.

At one point Dumas asked Django point blank, "Did you work under Ratatosk?"

To which Django said, "H-E-single-hockey-stick NO." and left it at that.

The Duke sensed he'd offended Django and checked his map. They were almost to the foot of the mountain. "Oh good, they're raiding my secret warehouse off Belladonna Street." It was part of his saving the world plan. Slide thirty. The Guild would not accept gifts from the infamous vampire. They would, however, cheerfully raid monster-infested hideouts with their coordinated strikes. The trick was making them think it was their idea. Dumas had been seen in Old Culiacan near this warehouse. They'd investigated. Dumas had planned to disarm enough traps to avoid casualties while leaving enough to still look like it was meant to keep humans out. He and Perrault kept some hiding holes for themselves.

Finally they arrived at the foot of the Firetop mountain. "So, will you be joining us?"

"I need to think about it." Django said. Technically that was true. He was thinking no.

"That will suffice. I know they have been our prey in the past, but the humans have an admirable fighting ability and we would be fools to forget that again..." Duke Dumas took something out of his pocket. He handed over a small metal device with an antenna. "This transmitter is yours now. If you get in trouble again, press the button. One long press and we will come running. Three presses activates non emergency signal. Use that if you want to talk." The duke did not doubt that it would be used. They were the only vampires left and loneliness was a powerful emotion.

Django looked at the Duke and his cat. Perrault, sensing Django's reluctance, decided to exploit his cute cat charms. Django accepted the gift with a mumbled "Thank you."

Dumas replied, "It was my pleasure. Take care of yourself, Squire."

Django walked in a different direction, then doubled back and went the correct way home once he could no longer sense them. He spent a lot of time having to take detours to hide from people. He wondered if he should have asked to be dropped off at the Azure Sky Tower, even if Silver would have disapproved of the visitors.

* * *

Alice frowned as she looked over her notes. The canid and vulpid civilizations were on board. So too were the aveids. Too many other species were unwilling to join in open combat against the Immortals. If they were to have a chance to win this war against the Immortals, everyone was going to have to work together on this.

Alice glared at the reply from the ambassador this morning. One sentence in particular bothered her. "If this planet's native species can't even put aside their differences to work together, how can we expect to be able to work with them? They have been at war with themselves for centuries. It's a lost cause." He, unfortunately, had a point. While some people in the Guild were willing to forge uneasy alliances, the years of loss and abuse at the hands of vampires left people unwilling to trust even so much as a shoelace to the vampires.

Dumas had made polite overtures to them, but humanity had learned the lessons written in blood. Those who could fight often refused to show any forgiveness. Those who were willing to work with Dumas were largely people unwilling to show any fighting spirit.

Sheridan, surprisingly, was in total agreement with Alice. Dumas was not a trustworthy person, but he knew where all the stockpiled resources of the planet Earth were. Fighting against him drained manpower and materials from the coming battle against Polidori's people. Carmilla, with her cold logical mind, had a clear assessment of what was at stake here; She said it was not her decision to forgive Dumas, but they needed to at least listen.

Alice had something in common with Lucian: Revenge. Her aim in life was to stop the Immortals from destroying anyone else's home. While Lucian was out to get Dumas, she had Polidori on her hit list. Now he was gone and she was not gonna let any other planet fall to the Immortals.

* * *

Today had been a good day at the laundromat. Not everybody took pride in their work like Fastidious Teenager. Being able to enjoy his music while working was an added bonus. His perfect record with cleaning fabric earned this laundromat the business of Lucian. He didn't want to trust any other place with his coat.

Fastidious Teenager had carefully waxed the floor before the last customer had come in with the usual stains on his coat. (Plus the unusual tomato juice stains.) They knew better than to ask Lucian details here. That was another reason Lucian visited this cleaner. Fastidious Teenager cranked up his music after locking the door, which meant that he missed the banging on the door. He finished getting the coat into the machine and was choosing the wash settings.

Kay, ears flapping in the wind, kicked down the door. Kay sprinted to the machines in the back and found his feet lacking traction. Kay had not intended it, but he stopped the washing with a flying tackle. The floor was more slippery than it had any right to be and it took considerable coordination to avoid serious injury to the teenager. Kay was left apologizing to the confused Fastidious Teenager until Lucian called to tell the kid to hand over the coat.

At any rate, they had the blood sample.


	6. The Sworded Details

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Django finally makes it back to the Azure Sky Tower, Professor Sheridan and Lucian deal with weird science, and Aaron sneaks off to investigate stuff.

The Silvery White Knight was good at waiting but could not help feeling worry. He felt relief when he saw a small bat flutter up to the top floor to greet him.

Django transformed back and wailed, "I bit someone!"

The knight stiffened. "You did what?!"

"The guy turned into a vampire and bit me and I was cornered and I freaked out and lost control and..." Django told all with a large number of 'and's.

* * *

Tolstoy had things set up now. He looked at the many facilities Polidori had records of. The vampires loved to stockpile things and Polidori had helped plan the government. They were not sure how many things Dumas had withheld from the Immortal, but they were confident they knew where much of it was.

He had the monsters ready, the Sunflower sighted, and Lucian tracked. Where was the Solar Knight?

* * *

Alice nearly got bowled over by Aaron. He normally could run all over town but today he looked a bit winded. He was almost over the flu, but not quite.

Aaron gasped. "Alice! Did Bea come this way?"

"I didn't see her. What's wrong?"

"Toasty knows the vampire! He's not certain but he thinks it might be someone he knew!"

"Was it a Guildsman? I thought the guild kept track of everyone?"

"No! It might have been the Solar Boy before my father!"

"Do you know for sure? Even if it was him, the Dark Matter probably has erased any memories. It's been a long time since the rise of the Lord of Destruction..." The biggest occupational hazard of vampire hunting was the possibility of being turned undead and forgetting who you cared about in life. Part of the training for apprentices was this grim fact and how to handle it in fallen allies.

Toasty drooped. He had seen that happen before. "I have to know. Where has he been and why would he be with Dumas? There's too many questions."

Alice shrugged. "Well, why don't we look at the evidence file again? They've taken the radar out to try tracking him, but it will take a while."

Looking at the file proved to be a good idea. Toasty took another look at the shield Django had dropped. That alone could have been found somewhere else but Alice noted that the latest direction the Schrodinger had been seen was in the area of the Azure Sky Mound. She insisted on tagging along for the trip. As she put it, "I'd be in hot water if I left the mascots of the Guild on their own."

She, unfortunately, was the one with the bike. If they asked someone else in the guild for a ride, it was likely they would veto the trip entirely until Lucian returned from Sheridan's place.

* * *

Sheridan looked down at the Vanargand as Lucian talked to Carmilla. (Lucian was complaining to Carmilla about work and dealing with the annoying kid.) The dark matter blade was always an uncanny weapon. Sheridan never dared to touch it with his bare hands before. Now, it made him uneasy to be in the same room as the thing. Vanargand felt more like it might wake up and bite his arm off than ever before. Nero and Lucian both swore that they heard a voice from it on the drive here but it was so faint that neither could make anything of it. Ursula, Alexander, and Ezra had not heard the voice.

Sheridan was used to alchemy taking him down dark and dangerous paths. This, he could handle. He prodded the hilt with an electrical probe.

Did the sword just blink at him?

Sheridan heard Carmilla's voice say, "I heard someone speaking, Professor. It may be that only those touched by darkness can hear it."

Nero looked at her, then back down to the sword. "You know what, Lucian? I think we should stick to Jormungandr and Hel until we know more."

Sheridan got to work before Lucian left. He, strangely, found himself explaining what he was doing to the sword. It couldn't hurt anything even though the sword felt inert again. He then made the explanations as detailed and boring as he could. Sheridan felt if the sword was waking up, it was worth a try. Boring a sword to sleep was hardly the most illogical thing he had done in the course of his alchemical studies.

* * *

The natural inclination of the Dark Tribe towards being dramatic was starting to make itself known. Django huddled in the shadow of a wall. "I'm a terrible person, Silver..." It was a position that indicated inner turmoil with a deep well of guilt. There was a lot of angst. Silver, not knowing what to do with the transmitter that summoned a vampire lord, tossed it out the window of the second floor.

The Silvery White Knight looked down, "My liege?"

"That poor man's restaurant was destroyed! I just know some innocent bystander got hurt! There were bullets everywhere!"

"Well..."

"I lost control back there. I could have spread this curse to someone!"

Silver said, "You did not, and that is what matters. You have delivered the solar tree seed. We know more about the current state of the world than we did last week so you succeeded on that part of your mission too. It is a pity you were not able to find the Messenger of the Sun."

"I don't know if Master Otenko would want to talk to me now..."

"He will."

"At least Sabata isn't still stuck killing people as Vanargand." Django said, completely unaware of the irony. He heard Dumas say that the Beast Vanargand was separated from Sabata. Dumas had neglected to mention the sword Vanargand.

"My scrying hast shown little else of thy brother's soul. It is still trapped somewhere in this world. If it was in the moon I would have found him by now. With the blood shared betwixt you brothers, we may be able to call to his lost soul this full moon." The Silvery White Knight looked at the other things which Django had tucked in his bag. Days old newspapers were most of what he'd grabbed from the streets but among them was a Gunslinger Guild recruitment flyer. (Django loved that the world had a Gunslingers Guild. No one should have to fight alone as he had.) This gave Silver an idea.

Silver said, "Young Adventurer, if they already have a person in their ranks who is half-vampire, they can hardly refuse your application once you have relearned the Moonlight Change."

Django looked up. He started to smile as he thought about it some more. He picked up the flyer again even though he'd memorized every word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The mental image of boring a magic sword to death by talking science at it amuses me.


	7. The A Team

Following the tracker was proving to take a while. Kay and Earnest left Bea to man the hideout and one had the tracker, the other had a general radar set to large sources of dark matter. The tracker, while accurate in the direction, had to be recalibrated every so often. It had a range, but they did not know how far it extended. This meant they got off the bikes more often than was necessary and spent more time on foot.

This meant that despite the considerable head start, Alice and Aaron were able to reach the Azure Sky Tower first.

Toasty made sure to ask them to refer to the tower as a tower. The Silvery White Knight was still a little sad about losing over fifty floors of the Azure Sky Tower to the giant monster equivalent of a small child with a block tower in front of it. When they reached the tower, there was no door to enter. This side of the tower was where most of the rubble had landed. The ground floor and second floor were nearly submerged in dirt, even on the clearer side. Toasty led them to where the elevator used to be. He thought that would have been repaired by now. The three had to walk around the place for some time before they found a spot they could get in and Toasty made sure to go in first.

They looked around the repaired second floor. Great pains had been taken to clear out the rubble and make this room passable for challengers. The hint panels which had been on the ground floor had been moved here years ago. A hint panel which Toasty did not remember hung right before the floor's freshly-swept elemental emblems.

The hint panel apologized for the lesser number of floors and promised that the challenge would still be worthy for brave souls.

As Aaron was reading the panel, Alice stopped, took in the room with one sweeping glance, and said,

"What a dump! You said this is the home of that Moon Guardian? If he's just here all the time, you think he could dust a little."

Alice and Aaron jumped when they heard the voice out of the air say, "I have been preoccupied. Who art thou? Are you here to test thy courage?" The deep voice echoed a bit, like the speaker was wearing a helmet. "Wait, is that the Messenger of the Sun?"

Aaron looked around trying to find the source of the voice. "We're here to ask you something!"

"Are you the Solar Boy of this age, then?" The voice sounded a little surprised. The Silvery White Knight had been expecting someone at least a little older. He thought Django had been young when he'd challenged the tower. "I have some things to ask of you too. The package I sent, did it reach you?" Normally Silver would not show himself to the unproven and untested but there were a lot of unusual circumstances. The girl did not look to be a warrior but she did have the courage to travel here and looked like an ally to Toasty.

The sunflower had not expected to see the knight armor appear in front of them, sword sheathed. The Moon Guardian nodded as Toasty said, "Silvery White Knight... Have you seen Django? Is he...?" The sunflower dared to hope he'd not lost another Solar Boy to Darkness. Hope was in his nature.

Silver nodded. "Would thou speak to him? He is worried about what happened when he was acting as my courier.

"No way." breathed Aaron. "The guy that dad saved when he was time traveling is here?! He's not evil now that he's a vampire?!"

As Aaron started to excitedly recount Trinity's adventures, Toasty decided not to bother disillusioning the kid. Trinity mostly told the truth to his son and in his journals, but the world as Trinity saw it and reality could be very different things. Aaron kept talking so much, even Alice found it hard to get a word in edgewise as they waited for the Moon Guardian to bring Django downstairs.

* * *

Earnest tapped the radar screen. "Welp. Radar's close enough to show a potent source of dark matter."

"We've even got some time before sunset. I'll radio the backup. If Duke Dumas shows up and we didn't tell Lucian, he would never forgive us."

Earnest and Kay announced their finding, approached the Azure Sky Mound with their guns drawn, and began to circle the tower. They did not need to walk the whole circumference to realize the vampire was in the building. They would not have finished anyways since they found the bike Alice had driven. Earnest spotted something in the grass. It did not feel like a rock. Earnest reached down and picked up the small electronic button.

"Wonder what this is for?" He did not press it. He was one of those people in the world who wouldn't press every single mystery switch he found.

"Wonder why the vampire is in the Azure Sky Mound? Is this his bike?"

The two gunners crept towards the entrance and kept their solar guns drawn. They could hear voices now. The voices started to get louder. Kay took strategic cover behind a rock and Earnest hid behind a tree.

Alice and Aaron walked out into the sunlight with Toasty floating along.

"...think we can get the galactic rebellion going? Django's gonna be a big help in shutting up Ambassador Goethe. He'll eat those words about Earthlings being unable to work for the greater good. He always was like, 'Oooo you other species are so violent.' If he was an Immortal in past life I wouldn't be surprised. He is such a pompous jerk."

"Um, we still need to tell people about this, right?"

"I call 'not it' for telling Lucian."

Toasty decided not to have Aaron stuck doing that job. "I'll explain. Wonder what everyone else is going to say?"

Earnest emerged from hiding. "What were we going to be saying things about? Why are you two here?"

Alice said, "We were investigating who left the Solar Tree Seed for us. Toasty thought it would be a good idea to come out here. Turns out the delivery boy lives here. What took you guys so long getting here?" They had been chatting for a long time. The sol terrenial could have kept talking all night but it was better to travel before sunset.

Toasty said, "Well... It's more like he unlives here. It's all right, he's an old friend of mine!"

Earnest and Kay stared at Toasty as if he'd just turned into a marigold.

Alice tried to help. "He hasn't bit anyone living other than Lucian and Lucian did bite him first."

Toasty decided not to mention Django bit the neighbor's kid when he was three.

* * *

Lucian picked up the call and started driving when they called him about the radar reading. Vanargand could wait another day to be inspected by Sheridan. The Terrenials he had with him discussed their speculations about the current events. Alexander missed having Tove along but Tove was determined to have the tree growing as soon as he possibly could. It was strange too not having Aaron and Toasty to constantly bother Lucian with their questions and relentless optimism.

Lucian kept his attention on the road, which saved him when the monsters appeared. He swerved to avoid the suddenly appearing robot, then ran over a lizardman. A quick look around revealed Lucian and the Terrenials were surrounded. Lucian narrowed his eyes and got to work cutting his way out. This was an organized attack and perfectly timed to take him out. Lucian had gotten entirely too used to having cover fire assisting him.

The majority of Tolstoy's efforts at the moment were concentrated on Lucian. Tolstoy deployed troops in more locations than this to delay rescue. In other words, the assault had begun.


	8. The Battle Begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Immortal decided to make his move. Carmilla objects to this.

Alice's phone started blaring an alarm. She looked down at her phone and went pale. "Oh no..."

She looked to the sky where her beloved satellite, her pride and joy, her Sunflower Purifex array hid in cloaking.

There was an explosion visible even from the surface of the Earth. From this distance, it appeared as a largeish and briefly seen star.

Alice screamed, "MY SUNFLOWER! HE BLEW UP MY SUNFLOWER?! That Immortal is going to pay!"

Alice's Sunflower was not the only means to purify stuff, it was just the best option. The guild had constructed a few land-based Pile Driver models before the Parasol blocked the sun. They were not summonable like the one Toasty could call and were a little less powerful, but they did not require Solar Child blood to activate.

Behind her in the doorway, Django came running. He'd heard something about a sunflower being blown up and assumed something awful happened to Master Otenko. The plant quickly reassured the burning vampire that he was fine, get back in the shade.

"Wait, wasn't that the satellite you use to purify vampires and stuff?" Django asked from the inside of the Azure Sky Tower. He hoped he could help.

"Go away, we don't need your help." Kay said.

Aaron's eyes widened in horror, "Wait, did they get the Sunflower and the Laplace?!"

Alice was frantically typing. "It... yeah. Lucian's in trouble now too! And Old Culiacan!" Earnest and Kay were both pulling out their radios and getting on their bikes.

"Come on! We need to go help! We'll clear the way, some Guildsmen are trying to fight their way over to Lucian!"

This coordinated attack was probably not by Duke Dumas.

* * *

Part of the mansion was completely gone. Sheridan, mercifully, was not killed when Tolstoy's troops came through several walls. They didn't stop to do anything but grab the Vanargand. Most of the damage was from the mansion's considerable automated defenses set up by Sheridan to stop this from happening.

Carmilla had dragged Sheridan to safety and administered first aid. She made sure he was not concussed or in shock. Sheridan found himself alone as he tried to get in contact with Lucian, or anyone from the Guild. Carmilla walked back into the room with an experimental rocket launcher and her usual blank facial expression. "I'm going to rescue Sartana."

Professor Sheridan nodded and did not ask who Sartana was. "Take extra elixirs and please be careful, Carmilla. Here's the key to the motorcycle. The one with the additions. Don't forget the other elemental bomb types. I don't know what you'll find out there. Take the grenade relic. We already analyzed it so don't feel bad about using it." The small capsule found in some solar ruins was a potent weapon.

"Yes sir." Carmilla left without any further discussion.

Sheridan despite the emergency thought, _Finally my hard work is paying off. I just hope she reaches Lucian in time..._

* * *

Old Culiacan had seen monster hordes before. The problem for the Gunslinger Guild was that this wave included Tolstoy's robots. He'd fitted them with solar-absorbing force fields. They forced the gunners to improvise ways to knock out the robots. Tove joined the battle lines with Bea. Although he was loathe to leave the sapling, he knew that they needed help.

The Immortal, Tolstoy, had thought the terrenials would be with Lucian or Aaron.

* * *

Earnest had vetoed tucking a vampire mouse or bat into a bag to bring along as backup. (He had agreed to consider the application for a job when Django learned to change back into a human.) Django frowned as the bikes drove off to help the town. Even with flying, it would take hours to get to the battle lines. He'd also agreed earlier with Silver that he should probably figure out the whole vampire thing before spending time in proximity to civilians.

The Silvery White Knight appeared at his side. He could be stealthy for a giant suit of armor. "I know you want to go help the people. Do you have your spear? Sword? Mace? Gun?"

Django nodded yes to all the questions.

"I will teleport you as far as possible once the moon rises. Make your mother and father proud, my liege." The full moon tonight would be a considerable boon. Django would not need to bring extra healing items tonight.


	9. Solar Solutions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucian gets taken and we learn about problem solving with the sun.

_"Taiyoooooh!" - Ancient battle cry of the Solar Child civilization_

* * *

Tolstoy smiled. He finally had Vanargand's new successor in his grasp, along with four terrenials. It had taken twenty-two slimes, one-hundred and six ghouls, ninety vorns, thirty-three orcs, forty-one lizardmen, and more ghouls than Tolstoy cared to count to get Lucian to slow down. This wasn't counting the robots he'd brought along and those curiously murderous crows. Lucian was destructive, even without his favorite weapon along. If the kid was backing him up, Tolstoy knew it would have taken much longer to capture Lucian. (Bringing along this many troops had seemed like overkill an hour ago.)

When the Immortal saw a woman with a massive rocket launcher coming, he decided to skip the gloating and get out of there. He did not have many more minions left in the area thanks to Lucian. He had ruins to explore and announcements to make while waiting for the new moon.

* * *

The situation in the Culiacan area was bad. The Immortal, Tolstoy, had crippled the Solar Gunners since he made a number of robots all-but-immune to Sol element. It was a very effective diversion. Lucian was not the only hero making things go kablooey that evening.

You might be thinking, 'Clearly if the robots are absorbing sunlight-based attacks Aaron would be stealthy until he found alternate means of doing damage. Like the rest of the gunslingers."

You would be wrong. With Solar Boys they have a problem solving process that tends to go as follows:

Say you have a problem. The solution is going to be sunlight. Shoot it with sunlight. Shoot all the enemies with sunlight. Charge up energy from the sun and use that to move some blocks around. Summon some sunlight to light up the area. If you can't find your way in a weird forest, wait until it is sunny out and you'll be able to use your shadow. Blow up walls with sunlight dynamite. Restore dead plants with sunlight-powered magic. If someone is cursed, use some morning dew that contains power from the sun. If it doesn't die, laser it with more sunlight. If sunlight is burning you because you are half-vampire then take another vampire and be there in the middle of the sunlight lasers and let the sun in everyone's hearts fix it. If vampires block out the sun, build a solar-powered space cannon.

Sunlight fixed everything, at least according to Solar Boys.

Aaron, only having Toasty along with him, was no exception. His solution to solar bullets doing absolutely nothing was to use a solar trance and punch robots with the power of the sun. He made a nice little localized patch of bright daylight for the robots he destroyed. He blocked stuff with his shield while recharging to do more sun-powered martial arts.

The situation in the Culiacan area was bad. The Immortal, Tolstoy, had crippled the Solar Gunners since he made a number of robots all-but-immune to Sol element. It was a very effective diversion. The gunslingers did everything they could to protect the town. They took out the monsters first while distracting the robots. They got as creative as they could but were still in serious trouble. Those with Tove were the only people doing real damage to the invaders.

They now knew it was not actually vampires this time. Tolstoy made an announcement. People were deeply concerned by the announcement Tolstoy made where he said this was only a prelude.

* * *

Django could have sworn he heard his mother's gentle voice again as he ripped apart patrolling machines. At least the timing was good for taking advantage of his Lunar heritage. Moon bugs filled the air with their green glow and followed in Django's footsteps. The full moon seemed to show him the way.

_You still have work to do. There are people who need your help._

Solar gunners were, understandably, shooting at Django. It was the logical course of action to a vampire showing up during a crisis. It made helping considerably more difficult. If it were not for the moon bugs, he would have been in a lot more trouble.

Cornered Guildswoman heard "Taiyooooh!," as she was running from a spider-like robot. Django pounced on the bot and his dark-encrusted spear busted through a solar barrier before chopping off metal legs. She was momentarily distracted by the sight of swarms of moon bugs. He left before the woman started shooting at him too. He knew the bugs would take care of her injuries.

He saw a guildsman retreating very quickly and turned to see a large creature that he could only describe as toothy chasing the guildsman. It shambled along on six legs, had yellow fur, and a mouth that seemed way too big for its body. The teeth on it were small, pointy, and in dozens of rows. It wasn't a robot, but looked to have a solar element affiliation. Django enchanted his spear and got to work.

* * *

Aaron was not doing too good. Lucian was a bad influence. Instead of being careful and sneaky like most gunners, Aaron was used to following the path of destruction left by the Dark Swordsman. He was great at fighting even when there was no Lucian to draw aggro, it was just a lot slower going.

Kay and Earnest did all they could. There were just too many people that needed to be saved. The two urged Aaron to go get to Lucian while they helped the town. Alice went to see who from space, if anyone, she could call.

Aaron had faith that Lucian would keep fighting until they could get to him.

It was more of a surprise when he ran into Carmilla first.

Aaron had to ask, "Where's Lucian?! Have you seen him?!" The frown was to her what open weeping was to other women. It was more emotion than she ever had showed to Aaron. Aaron's heart sank.

* * *

While Aaron and Carmilla were on their way back to help the guild, Django was still fighting the bizarre beast in front of him. Django's spear cut deep into the leg of the toothy abomination for the umpteenth time. He was starting to wonder how long it would take to kill this thing when it changed.

The abomination growled, turned black, and charged at Django. Django jumped aside and found his dark magic glanced off the black fur. It had changed elements. Django sliced at it more and made not even a scratch.

Django frowned. He could run, but he could smell more living humans in this area. Nothing would be stopping this monster from going after them next.

He pulled out the Gun De Sol.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Doubt this will be done by Halloween. Maybe I should go back and fix stuff like inconsistent capitalization, terrible plot, make it more canon-compliant to avoid some of the plot holes. Filling in the plot is taking more words than I thought it would.


	10. Pest Control at the Azure Sky Tower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Silvery White Knight kicks people off his lawn.

Duke Dumas and Perrault, being more in tune with the darkness, sensed Django in the city before he sensed them. They left their monster minions with a simple command to attack only the robots, then went to check things out.

The two were happy to see that Django had taken the saving the world plan to heart. They were less happy when they spotted how drained he was. They appeared to say hi, ask him if he'd reconsidered their offer of friendship. Django politely declined further assistance.

This was just silly. Duke Dumas prided himself on his record for taking care of fellow vampires and being a person they could trust. Dumas and Perrault followed him out of the town when dawn came and the siege lifted. They wanted to make sure Squire was okay, but also sensed he was hiding something from them.

* * *

The Silvery White Knight took the blood sample Django gave him earlier and handled it like the dark-matter infused biohazard it was. It was possible the dark matter might make it easier to find more about what happened to Sabata since Sabata had been the Dark Boy. He would rather not have to worry about the extra precautions when setting up a scrying spell but it was important to be optimistic. Spell modification was not his specialty but the worst case scenario with this one was that he'd accidentally summon the vampire the blood was taken from.

The Silvery White Knight set out the pool of water with the full moon reflected and got to work.

He saw Sabata, the puppeteer Ratatosk, and then a sword forged of darkness.

The knight frowned. Django was not going to like that his brother was still a tool of the Immortals. Or was he? Silver had not seen the sword Lucian used, but the description Django gave matched. "Where can this sword be found?..." He muttered to himself as he recast the scrying spell. He had enough time left tonight to try and locate the sword.

He located the sword, saw Lucian and the Vanargand sword in Mahoroba, and rage took hold of the Moon Guardian.

_That Immortal has them. In MY city. How dare he!_

The knight started preparing the lunar teleport circle and a map. When an exhausted Django finally returned the next night, the knight began filling him in.

Django was surprised when the Silvery White Knight drew his sword and turned. He'd been so exhausted he hadn't even noticed the cloud of bats outside of the window.

Silver did not sound welcoming when he said, "Begone. I am sparing you." His tone of voice said there was a deep desire to not spare the vampire intruding on his domain.

"Oh come on." Perrault appeared as Dumas reformed. Neither of them looked like they were fleeing. "How come this vampire isn't getting chased away?"

Dumas did not flinch as the knight's sword pointed towards him. He addressed Django and ignored Silver. "Good evening, Squire. I was impressed by your actions last night. I don't suppose you have reconsidered my offer to join forces?"

Silver took a step towards Dumas. "Leave. I do not trust your intentions, vain and churlish tyrant. I am only sparing you because you helped my squire."

Perrault snorted. "Wait. He's YOUR squire?! You hypocrite! Whatever happened to 'I'm too virtuous to talk to your vampires?' Duke Dumas is the kind of visionary the world needs! Furthermore-" Perrault continued to argue with the Silvery White Knight. Silver kept pointing out fallacies in the debate while repeating his command for Dumas to leave. When Perrault said, "Oh don't you dare claim that Dumas is unworthy because he drinks blood from mortals. I bet this Squire's eaten loads of 'innocent victims' himself."

Django decided to speak up for himself. "I have not!"

Dumas frowned. "So Django is your name..." He'd heard that name somewhere before. Where? "I can help you reach your full potential as a vampire. I can help you obtain casket armor so you can live without fear of sunlight and water." Dumas saw Django was not looking convinced. "We're going to end up working with each other out of necessity sooner or later. Why are you so opposed?"

"My hometown was destroyed by vampires. My father was killed by a vampire..." Django had a very long list of grievances and personal reasons to be against vampires. Perrault and Duke Dumas regretted asking for the reasons. Most vampires did not remember their lives and even with large chunks of memory missing the list was awkwardly long.

"Staying here is pointless. Do you expect the Moon Guardian to fix vampirism? It's not a disease to be cured."

"I'm working on it."

"You are a vampire. When you accept this fact, you will be better off. I know you both are interested in keeping the Earth from destruction and the world needs my help. Who else would you join forces with? The Gunslingers?"

"I've filled out a Gunslinger Guild application."

Perrault and Dumas gaped openly. Perrault said, "You cannot be serious. They only take solar gun users. They hunt vampires. We are offering you friendship and freedom."

The Silvery White Knight decided he was done talking. "I'm giving you until the count of ten to leave my tower. BEGONE."

Dumas and Perrault did not leave before the countdown ended. They then found that yes, Django could, in fact, fire a solar gun. There was more smoke coming from Django than his target, but the sheer shock value as Dumas processed what just happened was worth something.

* * *

The next day could have been a lot better but, after taking stock of who and what survived the siege last night Earnest knew it could have been so much worse.

Lucian was still missing and they were doing everything they could to locate the missing Dark Swordsman. Aaron was upset and Carmilla apologized that she had not been able to reach Lucian in time to save him. They did not know what Tolstoy wanted with Lucian alive. The Terrenials were valuable sources of power for the unscrupulous, as demonstrated by casket armor. Carmilla had taken care of much of the Immortal's forces alongside Aaron last night. Alice said she had called in some reinforcements from off-planet. They were all particularly interested in why Tolstoy did not simply carpet bomb the planet and wanted in on the rebellion.

Dumas had been spotted in another part of town directing his monster minions to fight the ones working for the Immortal. They didn't like that Duke Dumas had been helping. He was still not someone anyone would trust. No one offered to shield the Duke Dumas from anyone trying to take revenge.

Then there was the matter of the other vampire. Django had been spotted in combat with robots and they knew it had to be him. There was the silvery armor he'd been wearing at the Azure Sky Tower. There were also the people who swore they saw a vampire using a solar gun. The excessive amounts of moon bugs they were not sure about, but Earnest would not put it past the Moon Guardian's squire to have something to do with that. Aaron and Toasty were willing to work with this vampire who was friends with Trinity in an alternate timeline. Earnest wasn't so sure about that 'this is the guy who saved Trinity in an alternate timeline' thing. The darkness had a way of changing people for the worse. Tove was cautiously optimistic when he learned who it was that delivered the Solar Tree package.

"Does anyone have ideas on why the Immortal kidnapped Lucian? He said something in his broadcast about a new weapon, even greater than the Planet Eater Byron..."

"Alice's friends say they think the Immortal is on the moon."

"What is he doing on the moon? There's nobody living there. Wouldn't everyone he wants dead be down here?"

Sheridan, on the phone, said, "I did some reading about Vanargand. The dark matter used for the Sword Vanargand was taken from the Beast itself. The Beast of Destruction is sealed in Mahoroba, the Lunar City. Some of my data is missing and only the vampires that were with the Lord of Destruction would know the details for certain. If Ratatosk would have told his colleagues everything is another matter. I have good reason to believe the sword is needed to wake the beast. If he has not done so already, there has to be a reason. There is probably a condition which has not been met."

No one wanted to call up the Duke Dumas for a chat. He would be very smug.

Aaron asked, "How would they control Vanargand? The Lord of Destruction managed it but according to dad, that was because it was fused to the Warrior of Darkness. He had been descended from the Lunars that sealed Vanargand and there was an eclipse..."

Kay did not want to disillusion Aaron yet. "Aaron, I don't know if the stories your father told you as a kid will be helpful."

Toasty said, "No, he might be on to something. Vanargand cannot be controlled, but if he found a way to use Lucian as a new sacrifice... We can't delay. We can't count on needing to wait for a lunar eclipse."

Alice looked up from her blueprints. "If we try flying in, Tolstoy's ships are creating a blockade. He will know we are coming. The rebellion means we have allies that can fly us in, but it will be difficult. Can we create a diversion?"

"Wait, maybe the Moon Guardian would know more about what might be happening? He would know if there was an active teleport to the moon! We can have someone sneak in while the Immortal is occupied with the spaceships."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess I didn't finish by Halloween. Leaving a story unfinished bothers me. Editing takes a lot of work but things would probably be improved with at least a quarter of this deleted.


	11. The Elefan in the Room

The Silvery White Knight finished set up of the teleport shortly after Django spotted Aaron coming to the front door. He'd been working on the teleport for a considerable amount of time. Aaron and Toasty were not long in coming inside with Earnest. Earnest looked considerably less enthusiastic about talking to Django.

"Guys! We think the Immortal took Lucian to the moon!" Aaron explained the situation back at Old Culiacan, the announcement Tolstoy made, and the ship blockade around the moon. "Can you help us get there? Do you know where they might be on the moon?!"

"The Dark Swordsman is a prisoner in Mahoroba, the Lunar capitol there. The sword he wields is there with them at the Vanargand seal."

"How did you know?!," Aaron asked. "I need to go help Lucian, right away!"

"The dark sword I found when scrying to find out what happened to Django's brother. I have good reason to believe the dark sword contains Sabata's soul. It may be that the Immortal intends to use his soul as a sacrifice again. Lucian is attuned to the dark power of the blade and may be part of the Immortal's plan..."

"No... Lucian..."

Django said, "Aaron. I won't let your brother suffer the same fate mine did."

Silver gestured to the active teleport circle on the floor. "This is the means by which you can get to the moon. I advise going while the city is still bathed in sunlight. If you permit him to accompany you, Django can activate Lunar technology for you."

"Thank you! Wait, is it all right if we bring him, Earnest?"

Earnest was thinking about it. "Is it really necessary to bring along a... vampire? He might have a grudge against Lucian?"

"We've been over this."

Silver did not blame the gunner for being wary. "You would be able to have my guidance either way when navigating the city. I am, after all, the Moon Guardian. Alice gave you an extra phone, did she not? There are shorter paths available with Django which would save hours of time and possibly allow you to surprise the Immortal. I know not how much time you will have to help the Terrenials and Dark Swordsman."

"Earnest, Dad trusted Django. I think he wants to help."

Earnest was still not convinced but Aaron's pleading look was working overtime. Aaron was dead set on doing whatever it took to save his friends.

"I trust Django," said Toasty.

Tove nodded. "I say we bring him along. He returned solar trees to this world. Even though it would have been easier to let them go extinct and solar trees weaken vampire dungeons."

Silver knew there was another important factor in the mission and should be brought up. "Django's loan is due in a little over a day. I do not believe he will be able to repay." He sounded resigned and a little disappointed.

"...Of course he took out a loan," Toasty muttered before exclaiming, "Wait, what for?!"

Django sighed. "I couldn't solar charge in the middle of the night, my energy station balance was low, and I needed to repay that pubmaster for the property destruction..." With all the robots that needed dark-enchanted attacks to destroy, there was no time to sleep during the siege. Doomy had been thrilled.

* * *

It wasn't long before the small crew Aaron and Earnest brought were assembled inside the ground floor of the tower. "Right," said Earnest, "We all set to go? Any questions?" The group was not a large one. They were focused on keeping a small and stealthy strike team. Carmilla had tagged along with a replenished supply of ammunition, of course.

Confused Guildsman went right to addressing the Elefan in the room. "He's a vampire!"

"Yeah. His name is Django. He's gonna be our door opener. I explained this twice already." He'd already explained this. Django had gone through the teleporter ahead of the team to test it and make sure nothing would jump them. This let him be out of the way while the plan was explained.

It was Soothing Guildswoman who raised an eyebrow. "The one Lucian fought?"

Silver sighed. "That is correct." He was glad Dumas left before Aaron and his friends arrived. That would have been even more difficult to explain. Django suspected his territorial vampire instincts had kicked in a little bit when kicking out Perrault and the Duke. That, and he didn't want to deal with Duke Dumas insisting on vampire mentorship. Silver felt insulted by the Duke trying to steal his squire. It did make him happy that his squire chose him over a suit of casket armor.

Carmilla said, "We need to save Lucian as soon as possible. We could use another element type in battle too."

The trip through the Lunar city on the moon was, without a doubt, tortuously awkward. The small crew of gunslingers were picked for their infiltration skill. They also were instructed to shoot Django if he started saying things like "...Run...the darkness-overwhelming! Get away!," or, "You look delicious, mind if I have a bite?" Django didn't like the justified worry about him turning evil on people, even if he understood their concern. The Guild Gunslingers did not trust a vampire to help save Lucian.

They say a good compromise is one where no one is happy. If you went by that criteria, this was a good compromise. Carmilla and Django were assigned to disable sol-absorbing force fields if they encountered any robots belonging to the Immortal. Aaron could taste the tension in the atmosphere.

The Silvery White Knight's voice guided them through an uneventful series of shortcuts, until finally they were almost to the seal. They had discussed their plans beforehand yet all were nervous.

Aaron was designated as the vampire-explainer if Lucian was conscious.

* * *

Tolstoy, although he would have preferred to get started right away, had to admit there were advantages to being forced to wait. The new moon forcing him to stop for a bit gave him time to work on two projects. He was not worried about the space battle going on at his blockade. The ships were not enough to break through the battle ships and drones he had around the moon.

The first project was figuring out how to control the sacrifice when he was fused to Vanargand. (Both Vanargands.) He was still working on that one. That could wait another moon day, if necessary. Messing that up would at least get him killed before he could feel the complete weight of his embarrassment. Lucian was unconscious after the latest attempt Tolstoy made to manipulate him.

The second project, one he'd found more success with, was making good use of the Terrenials' power for something fun. He went and borrowed from the designs of the casket armors. He had himself a nice giant mecha suit with not just one, but four elements to use. It had been a challenge trying to get the opposing elements to work at the same time. He opened the cockpit to take a look at the console again. His green hands moved over the screen.

The Immortal also, despite knowing Lucian was securely imprisoned in the tube contraption, kept casting glances at the unconscious Dark Swordsman. He told himself he was not scared of the unconscious pathetic human.

Absolutely not scared.

Nope. Not him.

Tolstoy jumped a good foot in the air when he heard the crash of Carmilla's rocket launcher hitting his mecha. His first worry was that Lucian was out, despite all logic saying escape was impossible. He booted up the mecha and scanned the battlefield. According to his readings, the rocket barely left a scratch on his modified casket armor.

Now that the Immortal, Tolstoy, had confirmed Lucian was not loose, he could do his speech. "So the earthlings have made it here after all? You dare to defy the Will of the Galaxy?" There was a mix of humans and at least one vampire. He was gratified to see the Solar Knight had come. It gave him an opportunity to personally crush Aaron.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For some reason I have trouble coming up with dialogue for Aaron. I don't know why.


	12. Dark Matter Popcorn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 5.5 Solar Gunners and Carmilla crash an Immortal's party to blow stuff up and do some Pile Driving.

Alice was coordinating the space battle and trying to get the impromptu sunshade out of the way. She spotted a familiar spaceship among the battlers. She'd already called not it for telling Lucian about Aaron making friends with a vampire. She decided to continue passing the buck on telling him Duke Dumas was helping today. This was a job for someone else. Although Lucian would hardly kill the person rebuilding his spaceship.

* * *

The fight went about as well as could be expected. First factor was that the Immortal's Casket Armor had multiple Terrenials worth of power to it. Time would tell if sacrificing mobility was worth it. He had to make the Casket Armor larger to stabilize the massive power load. With the weaponry he'd piled on, it was a walking fortress. It was about twice as big as the one the Baron Stoker had constructed, and about seven times as annoying. No crab claws were involved on this one, just a lot of shooty things.

Second factor in the battle was that Tolstoy called his robots which he had on the moon. Carmilla and Django focused on crowd control. The smaller robots required other attack types than sol. The Casket Armor had no sol-absorbing force field installed yet. He was in the middle of figuring out that installation when the gunslinging team interrupted.

Five-and-a-half solar gunners with one angry Carmilla whittled away at Tolstoy's Casket Armor. They started with the obvious gun turrets. Lasers guns, rocket launching ports, and plain old guns peppered the area with patterns of bullets to dodge. The progress was painfully slow. The group was about three-quarters of the way through their item bags. Django was nearly out of sunblock.

Carmilla took a break from blowing up a smaller robot to blast the omni-directional treads on Tolstoy's mecha. His already slow movement was more reduced to moving forwards and backwards in a circle.

Tolstoy decided this battle was worth taking a battleship off the blockade.

* * *

Inside the infernal contraption, Lucian heard gunfire and explosions. He groaned and shifted inside the glass cylinder. It was narrow enough to keep him from getting good leverage for a solid kick. In fact he could hear a lot of explosions.

Yeah, that Immortal was so dead when Lucian got out of here.

**DESTROY EVERYTHING! KILL!**

Lucian squinted at the sword and muttered, "Yeah, sure. Could you please make some helpful suggestions on how to do that to this Immortal?" This was the other voice he'd been hearing too much of lately. The sword Vanargand was somewhere near the cylinder. He could not see it, but he could hear it baying for blood. Lucian figured it had something to do with the Immortal's 'I'm going to wake the Beast of Destruction' speech. Vanargand was much more talkative here than at Sheridan's place. He did miss Nero. Technically, Nero was nearby.

There was a cry of pain outside.

 _Carmilla?_ Then he heard Aaron yelling. Lucian started banging on the glass. It was rather distracting for the Immortal.

* * *

"Hey, guys! I realized something!" Aaron yelled after about five minutes of shooting. "It looks like Casket Armor!"

The no longer Confused but now Distressed Guildsman yelled back, "We know!"The Guild Gunslingers all knew what the vampires' gear had looked like. Django yanked him backwards, "HEYLETM-Oh," and out of the way of an cloud-elemental laser.

"Wait, did you say it was Casket Armor?!" Django asked. He would have to go back for his greatsword when he could.

"Yeah! Wait, you didn't know?"

"I thought it would look like armor!" It had not occurred to anyone that Django may not have actually seen the resemblance. His only experience with Casket Armor was Dumas' armor, which was actually armor. Something clicked in Django's brain. It was Solar Boy problem solving logic. "Master Otenko! Summon the Pile Driver! You freed the Terrenials with a Pile Driver from Casket Armor before, right?!"

Toasty and Aaron heard Django. "What are you... Oh! I'll summon the Pile Driver! TAIYOOOOOHH!" Master Otenko/Toasty had not actually seen Django purifying Durathor. He had been a cat at the time. Violet caught him on the way to follow Django and there had been aggressive happy cuddling of a cat.

Aaron was closest to the activation point and sprinted for it. "Carmilla, Django! Get out of the way!" He knew that Carmilla might be hurt by the Pile Driver and Django definitely would. He shot at the mirrors to activate them. "How do I turn on the thing!?"

"You can't. It's Solar Child technology." Toasty told Aaron as the kid ducked behind his shield.

Tolstoy happily shot at the humans, and almost humans. He knew he had taken relatively little damage so far. The circular floor decoration appearing in the area had him worried.

Django transformed into a bat to fly around the giant robot blocking his way. This felt like a familiar situation and he was not afraid. He'd started to remember the day Durathor died during the siege. It had started with remembering his mother's words. He landed on the circle and raised his palm to the sky.

"Taiyoooooooooh!"

The burning light of the sun focused on the scene.

Tolstoy's giant battleship blocked the sky above where they were fighting with the worst timing.

Django snarled, "HEY!" That was distinctly unfair, in his opinion. Villains should not be allowed to park their spaceships as makeshift sunshades. He stumbled for cover from the rockets. The gunners did not appreciate the lack of ready energy either.

Kay kept shooting with one hand as he called Alice with the other. "Tolstoy's blocking the sun! Can you get someone through to get the spaceship away?! We need sunlight!"

Darkness was something Aaron could help with. He activated the Sol Trance to light up the area. It blinded Django and provided enough sunlight to get things going again. The bright lasers did more against the Casket Armor than the rest of the battle had combined.

Tolstoy mashed the controls to get the Solar Boy off of him. It took a lot of work to get the kid away and he continued to fire everything he had at the solar gunners as the temporary sunlight faded away. The Casket Armor was severely weakened, but no Terrenials were freed quite yet.

At the edge of the Pile Driver Django was down thanks to a rocket hitting him while he was reactivating the Pile Driver. He looked up as the area darkened again. The reprieve from the pain was nice but he could still barely move and they needed to keep the Pile Driver going.

They needed the sun. He'd been able to call the sun. There was a piece of it he'd held in his hands. Django had needed to wander through darkness for a time to truly understand the bright light of the human soul. He remembered how much faith people had in him.

That's right, thought Django. Django rolled over onto his back and pointed towards the blocked sky. He cast the moonlight magics necessary to summon a sun piece. "Taiyoooh!"

The strange phenomenon of sunlight in a place where the sun was blocked re-continued, much to the Immortal's dismay. The purifying lasers of sunlight penetrated the armor and reached the interior of the Casket Armor. A ray of light reached Vanargand.

There was a massive explosion of ectoplasm. The walking fortress opened like a kernel of popcorn. Lucian's prison crunched into a wall and shattered. Those who saw Lucian, Carmilla and a Guildsman, ran right to him to administer a restorative. Carmilla ended up prying open the cylinder to get the Dark Swordsman free.

Aaron's eyes darted around the Pile Driver, "Where's Lucian!?"

Toasty clung to Aaron as they ducked a swipe from the smoky form. "Carmilla's got him. He'll be okay with her!"

While those three were occupied getting Lucian up and out of the dangerous area, the Solar Gunners were all occupied with the giant angry specter trying to rip them apart. Lucian and Carmilla were not the only people who could hear the roaring of Vanargand. The fragment of solid dark matter in weapon form was not being purified without a fight. A giant fist nearly crushed Kay and the cyclopian eye fixed on Django.

Aaron looked up at the shadow looming over them. "Is this the Beast of Destruction?!"

"It's just a piece of it!"

Earnest restarted an inactive mirror with the gold flames of the Dragoon. "So this is the Beast... Keep the sunlight going! We'll cover you!" On the bright side, Pile Driving with a team was soooo much easier. Ezra and Alexander dragged Nero out of the way. The two flew him over to Lucian immediately. The cat and human (?) needed each other.

Django was already chugging his remaining potion. He just had to keep his energy up until Aaron could use the Sol Trance again. This was what Ratatosk did to his brother? He felt sick at heart. This was even worse than what Hel did to Sabata.

The Pile Driver, running on borrowed sunlight from two boys, kept its purification going. The massive ectoplasmic horror kept shrinking back into the sword. Solar gunfire drove the smoky monster back. The horrible roar of Vanargand became more human. Django took the opportunity to recharge when Aaron used the trance again.

* * *

Lucian, when he regained consciousness, looked up at the faces of Carmilla, the Guildsman, and three terrenials. He looked down at his lap where Nero had been deposited by Alexander. "What's the situation?" He scooped up the cat in an arm before attempting to stand up.

Carmilla handed a cure bulb to Lucian. "The Casket Armor used by the Immortal was too powerful for conventional weaponry. With the Sunflower out of commission, we needed to use alternative means to break through the armor and reach you."

Aaron popped up like he always did when Lucian did not want to babysit or Lucian needed a battle companion to save the world. (These two things were not mutually exclusive.)

"You're okay! Is Nero gonna be all right too?"

"I'm fine. Nero will be too. Where is my sword?"

Aaron rubbed the back of his head and pointed to the massive shadow in the middle of the Pile Driver. "Uh, we might have started purifying it by accident because we were trying to bust you out of that Casket Armor?" Lucian's sharp glare made him flinch, "I'm sorry!"

The shadow of Vanargand roared and waved its hands around above the white-hot lasers of sunlight. The dark matter got its eye shot while fires broke out on the ground beneath it.

Alexander shook his head when he saw Lucian looking at the action. "I would advise against going into the middle of an active pile driver. For one with dark powers like yours, it would be unwise." The Guildsman who had helped Carmilla ran for the purification after Ezra said something to him.

Carmilla filled in more details for Lucian. The fading sunlight leftover from the sol trance was nearly gone. "That mass of dark matter is from the sword Vanargand. They are finishing the Pile Driving by having both Solar Boys generate sunlight until we can get the spaceship out of the way of the sun." A miniature star flared in the midst of the darkness. "We don't know where the Immortal went." She saw Nero waking up.

"It's too much to hope that he died in the explosion. He probably slithered off to hide somewhere." Lucian started to look around for a weapon. He spotted a large broadsword on the ground and went right for it. (Django was too busy to notice his sword getting swiped.) "Solar Boys?" Aaron nodded and finished off a yogurt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank goodness for Wikipedia. I might have ended up naming the Immortal 'Meyer' instead of some other vampire story author when I started this nonsense. I think I saw at least three lore inconsistencies today!


	13. Doomy Comes to Collect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dark Loans prides itself on being punctual and they will always find you.

The group of solar gunners were united in feeling cheated. The Pile Driver had been doing its job despite severe limitations and running on borrowed sunlight. The war of attrition vs the darkness of the Vanargand Sword abruptly ended. They ran out of dairy products and energy potions. It was anti-climatic. One second, they had been all working as a perfect team in the middle of purification then the next second, silence. (There wasn't even the scooting of a coffin trying to sneak off. The sword remained perfectly still.)

Speaking of Django, he was glaring back up at the battleship parked in the way of the sun.

They'd been very close to finishing off the purification. The Casket Armor used by the Immortal had barely finished vaporizing. It had been natural instinct to keep the Pile Driver going first, worry about the consequences later. Lucian would have been mad about the vaporization of the Vanargand but Django seemed like he would run off with the sword and find a way to purify it himself if he had to. Having someone's dead brother trapped inside a sword merged with a bunch of dark matter from the Beast of Destruction was grim stuff.

Django looked questioningly at Aaron. Aaron shook his head and asked, "Soooo no one has any dairy products? No fruit?"

Soothing Guildswoman checked her bag again, just in case. "I gave you my last yogurt ."

Aaron asked, "Can a bat fly up there, do you think?"

Django guessed at the distance. "I can't fly that quickly..."

The Guildsman did a double take and looked at Django, "Who, wait, where did you come from?!"

Kay sighed, "That's Django. He's been here the entire time."

"He's the vampire we came with?"

Everyone shut up as the battleship in the way of the sun lurched. A smaller combat spaceship robot which Django would have recognized if he was sporting binoculars slammed into the side of the sunshade. Other combat ships had broken through and removed the blockage.

 _Did it have to be Dumas coming to our rescue?,_ thought more than one person.

The Pile Driver started anew.

It was less of a war of attrition with direct sunlight available and more akin to fighting Duneyrr with a large spotlight on hand. The darkness whittled away until nothing was left but the hilt of Vanargand. The massive form of the Beast was gone now replaced by a humanoid shape.

_"It was lunacy to hope that you, the brother I killed, would come. I became one with Vanargand. There was no hope, no one to save me..."_

Django stopped to look at the remaining mass of dark matter.

_"All this time and you came to save me."_

Django faced the transparent form of his twin. He could not speak. Pleas and apologies died in his throat.

_"My body is gone but, like Mother and Father, my spirit will watch over you. Keep fighting, Django."_

The image of Sabata turned to look at Lucian. Lucian had an eyebrow raised. Was this guy going to ask him to look after his little brother? Lucian would have to refuse that since he had Django on his list of people to kill.

Sabata had a wicked grin. _"Lucian... throw Django in the fountain over there, will you?"_

Lucian smirked. "Sure." He could do that before killing off Django. It was the least the Dark Swordsman could do for a Dark Boy who had been used as a pawn of the vampires.

With that, the last of the sword evaporated. The Pile Driver, sensing the work was complete, shut down. Sabata died.

Django, in his grief, did not see Lucian creeping up on him from behind. Earnest looked at Lucian. "Wait, seriously? You're actually going to honor his last wish?" Django looked up and realized that yes, there was a Lucian coming to get him.

Kay facepalmed as Lucian ran after Django.

"Don't kill Django! He's my friend!," Toasty yelled. No one put away their weapons yet. The Immortal was not confirmed dead yet.

* * *

The group of earthlings trekked back to the teleporter which the Silvery White Knight had activated for them. Lucian, when complying with Sabata's last request, found there was an unexpected, yet logical bonus to tossing Django in a city fountain.

As it turned out, Django now had hydrophobia. It was logical that someone who had spent a long time a vampire would have it. He was used to scary situations, so the phobia was not crippling but it was still very much a phobia.

Django mostly had stopped his internal screaming. He was determined not to think of the water. He didn't have the sheer terror of sunlight that most vampires would naturally have and still thought of the sun as his friend. He gravitated towards sunny paths. It was a pity Django had not kept such a mindset for water.

Lucian had, after much pleading from Aaron and Toasty, deigned to let Django live for now. If Django actually had been (willingly) working with Dumas there was nothing which would have stopped Lucian from decapitating the Solar Boy. Django's insistence that he was not working with the vampire that had rescued him would have been unbelievable in normal circumstances. Lucian had no Pile Driver to work with at present and made no promise other than that he would let him live until one was accessible.

For now, Lucian settled for taking all of Django's bladed weaponry for himself. Django suspected he was not getting it back. Given that he'd vaporized Lucian's favorite tool of vengeance, he could hardly object. Even without that reason he simply felt to exhausted to argue right now.

Earnest looked at the teleporter then back to the group. Kay, Carmilla, Lucian, Aaron, the generic Guild members, and all the terrenials were ready to go back... wait. Where was Django? The group had been keeping careful track of each other since everyone knew what Polidori had pulled. Chances were, this Immortal would be similarly annoying and they had not confirmed a death.

 _Darn it,_ thought Earnest when he saw the Immortal teleporting away from Lucian's swing. The arc of the broadsword hit Django instead of the moving Immortal. Django gasped. He disappeared too.

Tolstoy the Immortal had Django in his telepathic grip. He'd been spying on them, of course. Lucian's sword swing missed the Immortal and almost decapitated Django. Tolstoy knew he could not use Django as a hostage when Lucian was involved."Hmmmm. This will do. What better person is there to use than the brother of the last sacrifice? I must thank you." He decided to pretend he was not running away scared as he made his getaway. At least the gunners were avoiding hurting Django.

Aaron said, "Not again! We won't let you take him!"

Tolstoy smiled at the powerless humans as he lifted the limp vampire in the air. "Unsealing the Eternal Beast of Destruction was proving to be impossible with Lucian as the sacrifice. How was I supposed to know the Lunar Knight that defeated Polidori wasn't the kind of Lunar Child needed?" Tolstoy's smug laugh made Aaron's blood boil with anger. "Now, with the sword Vanargand and this Lunar Child, we can use the sword's namesake as our new planet destroyer..."

The aura of Tolstoy's telepathy choked Django as he tried to speak. "...k uh lll..."

"What was that? Did you have some last words for your allies? Some expression of regret?"

"...Ook ow uh lnnnn..."

"Enunciate, boy."

Django finally was able to say it. "I took out a loan."

Tolstoy was visibly confused. "...What? That's what you choose for your last words?"

"Repayment is due now."

"No wonder Polidori didn't use you in the construction of his new body. You are insane, even by this planet's standards."

A loan shark in a red dress appeared. She had a bright smile and a paper contract in hand. "You must pay what you owe, Django." Doomy vanished with her delinquent borrower before Tolstoy could say a thing.

Tolstoy was left with empty space where the prized sacrifice had been. The final boss, protagonists, and supporting characters left behind stared. They never thought they would see someone happy to have Doomy come for them. Master Otenko muttered something about how Solar Boys never listened.

Tolstoy lost the boss fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I never actually beat Boktai 3. I mean, I skimmed a Youtube playthrough of it? I hope the dialogue is cheesy enough.


	14. Django Gets a Job

Earnest stared long and hard at the application form before him. He had taken a bit of a liking to Django despite the fact that he was a vampire. Sometimes he caught himself thinking of Django as a vampiric and more mature Aaron. There was a short and very emphatic chapter in the Gunslinger's Guide about friends who got turned undead. Every paragraph in that chapter was basically, "Don't trust that bok/skeleton/ghost/vampire. We mean it." Rare exceptions to the rule did not last for long before their souls succumbed.

Django was an exception among exceptions. It had not taken long for Aaron and Django to become friends after Django finished paying his latest debt off. It was hard to say no to a kid who was, while quieter than Aaron, just as enthusiastic about life, guns, red scarves, taking advice from flowers, and how cool his vampire hunter dad was. Lucian was dismayed that the two Solar Boys became friends so quickly. He caught Aaron, Lisbeth, and Django out for solar fruit sundaes.

The reason Earnest was looking at the application wasn't that he was thinking of rejecting it. There was an excellent resume with references from the Messenger of the Sun and the Moon Guardian. He, Bea, and Kay simply didn't know what they would do with Django. Alice had a suggestion that while initially rejected for just being stupid, was now under serious consideration.

"Have him be Dumas' parole officer. It isn't like Dumas is going to turn him into a vampire, right? Plus, how many other people can spend more than five minutes in the duke's presence without snapping and killing him?" There was a significant drawback in that Django was too nice of a kid to be stuck with Dumas. He was well aware who killed Trinity, Sartana, Ellen, and countless unnamed NPCs. Alice wanted to use Black Django for PR in continuing the rebellion. Kay, Bea, and Earnest still were going back and forth about if it would be better to keep Django's human/vampire dual identity secret. Letting Django be undercover as a human would make grocery shopping easier.

Alice had some hilarious footage of Django heckling Duke Dumas when he was speaking to a crowd. He'd been talking about how fantastic vampirism was and Django disagreed on a number of points. Finally Dumas had snapped and insisted there was no way this weird smelling human could understand what it was like to be a vampire. The look on Duke Dumas face when he finally recognized Django as the vampire kid was priceless. It might bring a smile to Lucian's face

The more Earnest thought about it, the more it made sense. Django was trustworthy, reliable, capable of taking on vampire lords solo, and not going to be put in more danger of losing his humanity. He knew how to operate a Pile Driver. Dumas seemed to have, much to Django's growing annoyance, decided they were going to be friends. Dumas and Perrault would be much more likely to share their secrets with a fellow vampire. They'd already shared several hours of slideshow before they'd even learned the kid's name

Django was the only Solar Gunner who did not have a first-hand loss of a loved one to the jerk. Lucian was one of many, many people who refused to let Duke Dumas get away with everything. Still though, that would be a big problem to pass on to Django and he'd suffered a lot already. It would be meaner than asking him to take on Solar Tree care. (It wasn't the boredom, but the watering schedule that made that job unpalatable for a hydrophobe.)

Earnest decided to let Aaron tell Django he was accepted into the Guild. Then he went right back to thinking how interesting it would be to have Django hired as permanent killjoy for vampire recruitment speeches.

* * *

Silver was helping Django sort through the armory for a new sword that morning. (Lucian had no plans to return the silver broadsword after the Pile Driver destroyed the Vanargand Blade. It held elemental charges incredibly well.) Silver was quite proud of the young adventurer for his deeds. The Dark Loans debt called for a short reproving mention before the Knight told Django how very proud he was. Django had new friends and allies in the world. The boy was now saving up to pay the rest of the price tag on an old and broken gun he saw in the Twin Butterfly after he put a down payment on it.

Django was not destined for taking the mantle of the Moon Guardian. He simply had too much living to do and there would be more battles to fight. While Django had been gone, Dumas and Perrault had shown up twice to check if Django was back and wanted to provide constructive feedback. They didn't enter the tower last time, which meant they weren't stabbed. Eventually they'd have to deal with the knotty moral issues at hand that came with Dumas.

While examining a katana, Silver sensed dark power entering the tower. He didn't bother to properly view his visitors before teleporting downstairs, sword drawn.

"Perrault, I ought to-Wait. You are not Perrault." There was a flying cat, yes. This one was black with little red wings. This was definitely not Dumas, either. There was a dangerous level of dark power on this swordsman, but he was at least somewhat human.

"Sorry to have startled you. I sensed dark terrenial power and thought that an unwelcome visitor had returned. Would you be Nero and Lucian?" Django had forgiven Lucian for trying to kill him; The Silvery White Knight could respect that decision. It was best not to mention that Silver initially thought Lucian would be Duke Dumas. 

"I am indeed Nero, the darkness terrenial helping Lucian. I see Toasty has told you about me."

Lucian asked, "Did you say Dumas was here?" Aaron had now come in behind Lucian with a box and a smile.

"The tyrant is a frequent visitor." He could see Lucian considering becoming a frequent visitor too.

Aaron grinned at Silver. "Is Django here? He's officially part of the Guild now! He can earn bounties and we might get assigned missions together!" Aaron hoped Lucian and Django would get along. He really wanted his friends to be friends.

Silver nodded. "My liege will be overjoyed. He just left an hour ago. He is assisting the scientist, Sheridan, with an alchemical experiment. The researcher wanted to test a sol barrier with a vampire."

* * *

Aaron and Lucian paid a visit to Sheridan and Carmilla again. Lucian now was used to seeing Django around town. Watching Black Django run into invisible barriers was a good time. It was like watching a bat fly into one of those giant windows. Lucian decided to go inside for a few minutes to take a break from the overwhelming enthusiasm. Him and Nero took a seat at the table to wait with Carmilla after they helped her with some chores around the lab.

Django and Lucian shared an uneasy truce. They had a mutual agreement that if the other lost themselves to darkness, the other would be there to stop him and spare Aaron having to fight them. They both agreed that one was more than enough undead Solar Boys in the world and they did not want to risk Aaron getting infected with the darkness. Aaron did not need to suffer having to kill his friend either. Part of the mutual agreement was that no one was telling Aaron about this; He would be very upset.

Nero stretched and stopped cleaning himself the moment he sensed Toasty coming. Sure he was a cat, but he did not want to be seen cleaning himself. Aaron needed reminders that Nero was not an actual cat and if he saw this behavior, Aaron might start to think it was okay to try petting Nero. That would be undignified. Toasty arrived but then minutes passed without the cheerful chatter of the kid.

It was something of a surprise to see Toasty without Aaron around. The two friends had become almost as inseperable as Nero and Lucian. There were less dire consequences if the solar duo were parted than if Lucian lost Nero, but the strangeness remained. Toasty looked nervous but it couldn't have been some danger to Aaron or he would have said something immediately.

Nero had to ask, "Where is Aaron?"

"He's still with Sheridan and Django."

"Why are you in here? Shouldn't you be babysitting Aaron?"

"Well..."

Nero and Lucian gave the guilty-looking sunflower a long stare. Toasty didn't last long.

"They asked me which of their fathers was cooler."

Lucian put down his cup. "So now you are hiding here instead of giving them a proper answer? Coward."

"I mean really what am I supposed to tell them? How do I choose a favorite? The most feared solitary vampire hunter? The one that brought back vampire hunting from the dust? Plus, I don't want to let either of them down and, well, I don't know how much Trinity exaggerated to Aaron so I'm worried I'll contradict something Trinity wrote in his journal because of his stor-Oh no."

Aaron and Django had arrived at the door door. They headed right to the Dark Swordsman. Django looked a touch more irritated than Aaron. Nero thought the smell of darkness which clung to Django was more pronounced than usual.

"Lucian, have you seen Master Otenk-Oh there you are." Lucian reached for his glass of water.

"It wasn't cool of you to run away like that." Aaron said. Lucian took a long sip of water and looked Django in the eye. Django suddenly felt very nervous.

"I'm sorry. I can't pick a favorite Solar Boy. They were both the best in different ways!" Nero snorted but said nothing. Lucian rolled his eyes and did not put down his glass of water.

"Me and Django forgive you, but only if you tell us stories about them!" Aaron said grinning. Lucian and Nero rolled their eyes even harder.

Django nodded in agreement and took his eyes off Lucian for one second. Lucian flung the glass of water at Django. Django fled as if he'd just woken Zazie from a nap. The "AAUGH!" of terror made Carmilla turn to see Django fleeing.

Aaron said, "That was mean."

"Why are you complaining? I didn't push him into the canal this time." Django fought down his panic and went to seek out a towel in the bathroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might at least go back and fix capitalizations sometime. I hear "Lunar Knights" has a release anniversary today so that is as good an excuse as any to finish and declare this done. I don't like this story as much as "Cats and Coffins" but it was kind of a fun writing assignment to myself.
> 
> Maybe someone else will write their own new stuff?


	15. Forgotten Bit of Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to put this in the final chapter. Oops. I'll just put this up instead of editing my other things...
> 
> I know the localization decision to change the names for the American version of Lunar Knights is weird, but it's nice I don't have to worry about major characters sharing a name.

Lucian and Nero were enjoying some time to themselves. Even the Dark Swordsman had to stop and rest sometime. Aaron was on a standard patrol for the Guild today. Lucian pretended not to care. He insisted on Aaron stopping to check his inventory and equipment when they ran into each other on the street. Aaron wasn't allowed to go on a routine patrol where nothing was supposed to happen without being prepared for everything short of the earth exploding. It was totally a coincidence that Lucian and Nero ended up outside the Blue Dog shop at the exact time when Aaron's patrol took him by. (It wasn't like Lucian had joined the Guild and could be officially assigned to partner with Aaron.)

Lucian also made sure to give the patrol route partner assigned to Aaron a very meaningful look. Bea had assigned Django to be on the patrol with Aaron today. The look was one that promised terrible things if anything should happen to Aaron even if it wasn't even remotely a thing Django could have prevented. Lucian wanted to make it clear this was his revenge buddy. He would be angry if he lost a revenge buddy. The one and a half solar boys were also made to promise that they would call if they spotted anything Lucian wanted to decapitate.

It was while he was looking at the pictures Alice sent of the new Sunflower Purifex system that Aaron came back. Aaron was pretty happy he'd got to hang out with friends today. Django was happy too, he told Aaron he remembered a few more things like his Father's favorite sandwich.

"Hi, Lucian! So I was talking to Django about Solar Guns today and stuff..." Aaron said as he bounded into the room with the sunflower.

Lucian raised an eyebrow. Aaron was up to something. Django kept giving Aaron ideas. Last week he'd been trying to teach the younger boy the sol magic spell for freezing stuff. It ended with them experimenting on various things to see if they were freezable since Django forgot what the limitations of the spell were.

Aaron pulled out the Bomber gun and continued, "...Anyways, it is interesting that Django can use Solar Guns even when he's a vampire, don't you think?" He was hoping to see if this worked. "I bet you can."

"Did that d_ vampire put you up to this? No."

"I bet you cou-"

"No."

"Come on, I know you actually care about helping people."

"My heart is too set on revenge and filled with hatred. Solar guns won't work for me anymore."

Aaron was giving him a pleading look. "But have you actually tried? Even once?"

Lucian leaned away from the Bomber being shoved in his face. "Go away, Aaron."

"But it would be a tactical advantage. You could surprise your enemies if they are out of reach!"

"I said, go away."

"Aren't you curious?" Aaron was very disappointed. Django had advised against trying to force the issue with Lucian, but Aaron knew in his heart that Lucian wasn't as dark as he made himself out to be. Lucian knew he was more vampirey than Django was. (If you measured vampireness by how edgy a person was, Django was very outranked.)

"I'm going to hurt you if you don't leave me alone."

Aaron sighed and gave up. Mostly. He set the Bomber down on a table and left the room. Glorious, solar-powered destructive explosive goodness wrapped in a metal casing sat there. It promised things would go boom when it was fired.

Nero looked down at Lucian. "Aren't you curious? I'll keep watch if you want to try it."

"Even if it works, it'll burn me."

Lucian went back to reading. He lasted five minutes before examining the Bomber. It wasn't like he was going to pick it up. Django could still use solar guns because he was descended from that one civilization and kept the sun in his heart. Five minutes passed again. Lucian started reaching for the gun when he heard someone coming. When Kay entered the room, Lucian was back at his side of the table and not reaching for the gun. Kay offered to take the gun back to Aaron and tell him off for leaving his stuff around so carelessly. Lucian found himself saying he'd make sure it got back to Aaron. Lucian took the gun to go find Aaron. He knew that the spark of light in the sighting lens was just reflected from the window.

After bringing the gun back to Aaron, Lucian kept his hands in his pockets to hide the sunburn.

**Author's Note:**

> "Hmm how about something popular with vampire slaying ancestral weaponry? Dhampirs? Carmilla? Counts that will not stay dead? Gloriously cheesy dialogue? Castles that chaotically regenerate enemies because they are filled with evil? I'll write Castlev-Boktai." Goal wass, finish this by Halloween with or without a coherent plot. If you want quality, go look up Kura5 or something. I think "Cats and Coffins" was a better example of my work but I had fun writing this.


End file.
